We had an interesting discussion in the IAP group this morning. Present were me (obviously), Ben, Caroline, Mark and Julia. Unfortunately, we lost Julia halfway through – but I think most of the serious discussion was over by that point.

Caroline shared her work for A4. She was on the review post tutor input. The original work was a series of overlaid images showing 2 view of herself – what she is doing now (in England) and what she might have been doing in Dubai.  We all agreed that we liked the images, but they were quite complicated to look at and difficult to follow her theme. I wondered if both images should have been given equal visual weight – but Caroline said she had tried that, and it did not work well. She has redone the series using torn and joined together prints. We all agreed that this gave a much clearer view of what she was doing – very effective. All liked the physicality of the torn images.  Discussed about the text – whether to change the dates so it did not risk being linked to Covid as the separation was not because of that.

Zoe showed her A3 series with the new images and order as suggested by the tutor. People liked some of the pictures, especially the Star Wars in front of face. Long discussion about what order to show them in to tell a story. Ben suggested to change so that there was more of a conclusion. Agreed that the issue is whether this is a straight documentary – so did not need a more personal take – or a tale about a group that I was involved in – so personal images would be better. Impossible to reshoot – so simply maybe write up as a learning experience.

Julia shared her beautiful images for A4. This is her original take and she had already decided on some changes. She said her tutor always asked her “Why?” And what makes her like any given images – which is both an important question and one that is difficult/impossible to answer! Julia commented that she struggles with using words with images and often found them pretentious – so used quotes (very effective). We spent some time discussing fonts and how to choose them. Julia is thinking about making the images into a book. (I did not say so at the time – but think it could make a beautiful book – but would be nice rather longer).

Ben – has been working mainly on his CN assessment work but he described his A1 work on the Glasgow City Mission, deadpan images of the people there. He told us about his working practice – talking all the time, telling people exactly what he was doing. He took the people into a separate room so they wouldn’t be embarrassed – unfortunately some of the best images the subjects didn’t want shown. He commented that his tutor was encouraging him to research more.

Mark is just finishing off CN and not started IAP yet.

General points:

• We all get asked ‘why?’ – by our tutors
• We need to think about why things work (so we can do it again)
• How to use text – and what font – maybe ask Caroline for advice on that!
• Lockdown makes you think harder – work within the imposed limitations
• Some discussion about cameras and the use of both digital and analogue – varying things can give you more opportunities.
• Noted the Learning Outcomes are different in the course manuals (even on OCA Learn) than they are in the assessment guidelines – so be careful to check

Plans:

• Zoe will write up today (and add to Padlet)
  • https://oca.padlet.org/zoe516582/eqwj7n14o7mwwxgz
• Ben to organise next meeting by zoom – 04/07/20 at 1000 British Summer Time.