Focusing.

Starting a new course in Art+Critique

Currently I’m preparing for 2 things (asides from the continual preparation of being a mother)
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– Mapping Broxbourne – The Project I’ve been working on since I once ran a few mapping workshops back in 2019/2020
– Art + Critique: Critical and Contextual Studies in Art Practice – Starting an online course on Tuesday evening.
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Firstly, Both,of the above,work alongside each other.The course is a journey in to exploring how my research&practice interlink and sit within the contexts it finds itself within the arts& social sphere…currently still very hazy on how to talk about both together & how to feel legitimate when talking about why I feel this work is relevant right now. autho creating a landing page with Fiasco Design has helped me validate and express myself in a more visual way

I also am messing around with power point as a form of documenting my process and understanding where things came from see below:

(mappingbroxbourne.com if you want a nosey)

..as a lot of what I am/will be working on is going to be writing and analyzing … ;where previously I have been terrible at documenting moments of inspirations, EUREKAs and that feeling of buzzing with excitment because you see the links in yourself, life and work… but no where to put it;Where better to leave my thoughts then the blog I made to document the development of Mapping Broxbourne.

Secondly, there is no better time then running up to a new year and it not being a new year or christmas for that matter, to give myself a task of writing my thoughts on this blog after each session. weather visual, spoken or written I want to leave some mark for myself to look back on and maybe… maybe for others who may find this jargen of mine and think it is of some use/gives them knowledge of something/someone or someplace new that they hadn’t heard of.

and Thirdly because truly, I wish I’d been a little more interested in Research when I was actually studying… but isn’t it just the way to not understand your practice or yourself within a context until you leave that context/place/ those people/those ideas or general environment..
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I thought I’d look back over what I was asked to think about before the course starts as a way of acknowledging my own words and thoughts again.. and then being able to address anything I’ve not thought of or should think of..

What are my reasons for joining….

I have never really understood how to place my practice & research.
– A big very blatent reason for me to step back in to an alternative approach to education. I was always told to ‘do’ research
But never was able to feel the link between practice and research until I returned home. when, if I’m honest, I didn’t think I would want to be calling myself an artist after too many years of not understanding myself within ‘the art world’ that was me before seeing how theres many ways in to beinging in this cultural landscape of things..

My current practice came through the voluntary & community work I was involved in at home .
– This opportunity to explore my practice in relation to research, my home town, my understanding of the art world & society/politics. and begin to unravel a knowledge base;has come through a journey of realising what is present and what is missing for creatives in the borough of broxbourne. I generally would not be here, if I did not have a passion to understand where I grew up through diffrent people, places and opinions and through the medium of creativity.
The major issue I found was the merging of Rosanna as community organiser and Rosanna as Artist. I definatley had to step outside of broxbourne and speak to individual practitioners to understand my place in what I saw as ‘the art world’ at the time. (when realistically we are living within our creative landscape all the time)

This offers a period of time to reflect , analyse & talk through where I am, focusing more intently on the relationship between practice & research.
-I’m thinking about:
What opportunities or lack of opportunities are there?
What support, resources, understanding of diffrent approaches to creative peactice could there be ?
How can we have an inclusive and regenerative approach to those opportunities and learning?
And how can my practice address this?

Beginning to feel confident in talking about my practice being lead by research in some capacity.
I should think of practice and research as one and the same, my practice is research and my research is practice. there seems to be no distinguishable mark in how I work.

I never really understood the importance of research in terms of practice when I was at art school and it was not explained to me why or how I could understand the importance of finding a route for myself within what seemed very academic as books & writing enhanced your grades, when really I was not that way inclined .

Sophia Kosmaoglou writes under the course description and in the section on Pedagogy, participation & accessibility
‘The course is informed and structured along collaborative, co-operative and collective principles and pedagogical models, employing alternative models of art education.’
It takes me back to the tedious attempts of reading, writing and examining art that I had no relation to and reading books I just could not finish, because these we’re seen as ways to inform practice and add to my sketch book that had to filled…
I acknowledge parts of this was myself not being present or able to reflect in certain moments when tutors;who we’re telling me to look to life for inspiration;We’re undermined by my thinking that I needed to make something rather then do the ‘research’ when I was more concerned with churning out art … because making something was always emphasied…. then to understand what had come before and how can this inform my work?!?

Where as now, I understand that the process is my work.

I work my research in to conversations, in to creative consultations & workshops, I ask questions and gain knowledge from people,place and community. Sometimes I’m informed of people, or ideology or movements and it doesn’t come up for me until something linked happens and I have those ‘Eureka moments’ while being introduced to artists who have connected mythologies, and in searching for people and places and communities that have stepped out of their comfort zones and welcomed the creativity of alternative practitioners. (I’m nt saying I whole hartedly understand myself, but I understand why I’m interested in the things I’m interested in and its taken a long time to form some opinion of why…)

The alternatives must have been there in my years at university. I think I over looked information, but also I sometimes felt un-supported in the after math of not being able to write well or use grammer in the right way and in leaving uni your kinda left with a sink whole of expectation that swamps your mental health if you are not swept in to the art world straight away (or at least that was my experience).

Both my mental state and the education system had influence on how I felt after doing both a BA hons and then a masters. And in acknowledging the inspirations I over looked because of my mind set at the time, I can see how individuals can be lost if they do not find the support of a network either in community or in the sectors they want to work for.
I guess thats why I found my home town so interesting, as it lacked these support systems ( from what I could see before I really explored the community and voluntary sectors in broxbourne)

I recognize my place is to hopefully create access points for creatives that offer links to community and to acknowledge and welcome alternative, views, opinions and approaches to cultural development for the next generation and for community to have as much opportunity… to see the opportunities and the gaps within them..<<< (expand on this sometime Rosanna..)>>>

Education can work in many ways and it does not work for a lot of people.
I’m excited to see how I can learn ways of learning and unlearning from the collaborative process this course allows.

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What I’d like to Learn & Achieve

– how to talk/write about different modes of research visual and creative
& how they co-exsist with my socially engaged practice.
-Learn about other peoples methods of research/practice.
-Take away some of the peer support methods in to the project I am currently developing .
-Learn more about alternative art education and what this might mean to me & others.
-Possibly A visual Tool kit for my process?

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Questions

How can mapping make visible the spaces which underpin a places cultural importance to its community, in areas where there is a history/ lack of funding and support towards arts development?

How can I develop tools which the general public can use so they are not alienated and can access information easily?

How do I work with local authority to address societal change?

and many others I haven’t thought of yet.

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Course starts tomorrow.
So I shall leave thoughts again soon.

Rosanna

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rosannamckenna.wordpress.com
Mappingbroxbourne.com