We've just had our last tutorial! I felt like I was in a good place, as I presented my workshop ideas, updating the group on my interactions with different groups in my area, and went through my time plan for the summer break.
I discussed my worry that I hadn't yet actually carried out any workshops, and how daunting the whole experience was, although I do feel a lot better prepared since my workshop with Simon Mole. But teenagers are scary, they are bigger than me for starters, they are loud, and hard to pin down! The advice was basically to get on with it, which I will as I want to start back next term in the best position I can be in.
We discussed my artefacts, and whether they were the processes I have gone through to get to this point, the workshop exercises themselves, or the t-shirts made by the respondents. Obviously they are not the t-shirts, as I can't be judged on something other's have created. Next I wondered about how best then I could dimensionalize the workshops for the purposes of the exhibition... luckily I have a few ideas brewing...
I was also concerned about presenting the diary, there have been numerous comments over the last few months about the preference to a hand written journal over a blog printed out. Which I feel is a real shame, I see my blog as a very real and accurate log of my entire journey through MADS, and yes I do have a sketch book full of ideas, but it is also full of flyers I found interesting and articles I have read, which are not really needed in full. I really hope that as I have put actual written notes from my sketchbook into my blog this will be considered as a good way of combining the two. Richard said that I really must ensure that the relationship between the information gathering and reflective passages does not become disjointed.
I have decided to use this entry as a monthly reflection also, as I seem to be flowing quite well here. This month has yet again pushed me out of my comfort zone, meeting a lot of new people, young and old, and really having to sell myself and my workshop idea. I have also had to take on a lot of responsibilities as part of the marketing team for the exhibition. I have helped write a plan on how to promote the exhibition, prepared a huge PR contacts list, and really feel I am contributing to the team.
I really hope over the summer period that my project moves into its final phase and that the workshops, and the exercises within then develop through the iterations from the young people, to create something that really helps them understand themselves better and have some positive experiences.
Then I can come back in the new term and start planning a way of dimensionalising the whole process for the final exhibition, and I have to keep remembering it's all about communication... I need to think about it being a sensory experience, and not rely on a high level of interaction or technology. Clarity is the key, less can be more, it's all about a narrative!
I would like to work on the 650 synopsis too over the break as I can imagine it will be a process that is quite fiddly and time-consuming. It must show and explain the genuine new knowledge that I have created in the subject area as well as for my own personal development. The HOW will be very important, and the WHAT and WHY are kind of looking from the opposite direction now, with my conclusion hopefully fulfilling my IF.
The artefacts must be a means to an end, not the end itself, the vehicle for the research I guess. The only problem I may have is how I actually display the evolution of my workshops in response to feedback.
I do not see the bibliography being an issue as I have been updating this regularly, although I haven't for the last few weeks, but will next week when I have some time, need to add in a few exhibitions I have been to lately, as well as the great articles I have read on teenagers and their sense of self, which have all shown that the psychology models used for them are just those of adults, there is a lot of research and numerous theories for children, but adolescents seem to have been ignored strangely enough. Surely, that teenage years are the most complex as far as personal identity is concerned!
I am still trying to get the music and theatre workshops underway too, I have been contacting a number of people, as well as existing groups, to see if I can observe the work they currently do, to see if I can work with some existing programs. The reason I would like to also get these underway and test them with the young people in my local area is that I feel young people should have access to activities that excite them, and through this we can really work on the key themes of identity and commmunity. They are difficult topics, and through something young people are passionate about, I feel we can really investigate them.
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