Self Appraisal 3

Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Module:

School of Art
BA(Hons) Fine Art Extending Practice
Level 5
Student: Tutor: Date of completion:

Ben Chandler David Cheeseman 08/05/17

Development: Outline further developments in your practice in this module, indicating where you feel you
have most advanced.

Research through this module has been more concise but the results have been critical and rich in content, leading to a
deeper and more concrete understanding of my subject and themes, as well as a more confident ability to apply these
findings into my practice. Integrating theory and bettered, critical thinking from my essay module has helped bring linguistics
and spatial language to a crossroad, making my practice more direct yet still retaining its atmospheric realm.

Abandoning the Monolith from my last module has been integral to removing my tunnel vision, and reigniting my ability to
generate and actualise other ideas with different subjects and media. More suitably chosen materials and techniques have
executed my ideas more effectively, even if the chosen materials and processes were simple; practising economy has
allowed more time to try other ideas without losing out on the desired tone of my work. Although many ideas were
generated but not physically completed, various materials and processes still remain tested with my core ideas being
refined more thoroughly. The whole module has essentially been finding an optimum, structural harmony of concept and
media, and harnessing the two elements to generate new structures. This modules results have also aided in strengthening
my understanding of semantics and how I can have my work read how I want it to be read.

My artwork ideas that came too late to make (deriving from my advances this module) are becoming more sculptural again,
but text and aperture-based works are also being added in as a new area to explore. My newly refined methodology for
making art appears to have a more organic and healthy balance between physical and conceptual concerns. My work now
also suggests my themes as opposed to earlier work that tried to literally illustrate them; I have found myself working more
with the mold than the cast.

Appraisal: Objectively reflect and analyse your body of work from the point of view of an audience. How does
the choice of materials and processes inform the meaning of the work? What are the perceived strengths and
weaknesses?

With my various themes of self-awareness, entropy, impermanence, and autobiographical elements, being highly specific
with forms, shapes, colours, placements, and processes should keep my desired reading of the work as accurate as
possible whilst still giving the audience room for manoeuvre. Limited colours, minimal visuals, no/limited audio, slow
movement, and emphasis on light and darkness should offer a soft power through strong visual presence. Such a myriad of
binaries should also form a reciprocal channel between introversion and extraversion regarding gesture. Considered titles
compliment -but can also extend- context depending on the piece. Depending on how I want a particular work to be read,
the chosen title could either resolve all conceptual enquiries or instead open it up for the audience to explore.

Weaknesses would be:

Over-the-top time management ironically consuming time better spent in the workshops.
Ones control over animations and software limitations (e.g. smooth rotational movement).
Not finding physical manifestations for some of my less-used writing.
Not resolving many of my ideas.
Over-thinking, and therefore missing small, quick, and important steps in a process.

List of skills acquired / developed: in relation to the module learning outcomes, this enables you to
identify the acquisition of particular practical, technical and intellectual skills.

More organic ideas generation regarding: Media, Subject, Process, Placement, Movement etc.
Developed writing ability: less is more, polysemous significance, controlling tone, application to the material.
Print Room: Lino Carving, Embossing, Debossing, Printing paper types.
Textiles: Heat Press Transfer, Fabric inks, Digital Embroidery software, Digital Embroidery machine.
Equipment: Proficient and comfortable use of Video Cameras and DSLRs on Manual mode.
Computer: Animation methods in Adobe Animate, Video editing in Adobe Premier Pro.

Signed Student: Signed Staff: