Methods 2017-2018
Reading, Writing, and Research Methodologies 2017-18
Led by Steve Rushton
"The Reading, Writing, and Research Methodologies Seminar is tailored towards (further) developing research methods within the first year of this master. By establishing a solid foundation of research skills, it will eventually prepare students for their Graduate research in the second year. Through reading core theoretical texts, they will establish a common vocabulary and set of references to work from. They will learn the practice of classic ‘essayistic methodologies’, including close reading, annotation, description and notation, students learn to survey a body of literature, filter what is relevant to their research and create comparative pieces of analysis. The seminar helps students to establish methodical drafting processes for their texts, where they can develop ideas further and structure their use of notes and references. The course takes as axiomatic that the perceived division between ‘practice’ and ‘theory’ is essentially an illusion."
Curriculum:
The seminar over the two trimesters will involve:
(a.) Identifying the object of your research: description and analysis of your work
(b.) Contextualizing your work through description and reflection on contemporary and historical practices.
(c.) Identify research material key to your practice.
(d.) Synopsis and annotation of key texts
(e.) Writing machines: creating methods for group and individual writing.
Throughout, there will be an emphasis on working collectively, whether in a larger discussion group or in smaller reading and writing groups.
Editing Reading, Writing & Research Methodologies - handbook information
Method for all the sessions
For every session there is a different task, which employs a different writing reading or notation method. I will set no assignments outside of the class, but you must commit to trying the methods I suggest for the day of the seminar. Over the three trimesters you will accumulate a collection of texts and approaches to writing which serve as a resource as you go into the second year.
Outcome at end of year: Text on Method
The specific outcome for the RW&RM seminar of 2017-2018 will be a 1500 word text which reflects on your own method and situates your work in relation to a broader artistic and cultural context. The various texts produced within the RW&RM seminar will serve as source material for your text on method. In common with all modules on the course RW&RM serves to support the other elements of the course. Therefore, the text on method will inform your Self-Evaluation at the end of the third trimester and provide the basis for your Graduate Project Proposal that you will produce in the fourth trimester.
Here are the TheTemplate; and here is the link to previous texts on method: '''FINAL VERSIONS''' deadline early May
Wiki Basic style sheet
Titles and works = italics
Essays = Title in Caps
Notation = Harvard System (writer, page number) = (Smith, 26)
URL = make link
Guide to Essay Writing
Jstor is a very useful resource
The Sessions (to be added to and amended)
Other method exercises (Please add)
One day collaboration
Filter same information through different forms: report - review - interview
Session Sixteen: messy writing task
Session Fifteen: fable-writing w/shop
Session Fourteen
Reading with Y2.
A session in which we get together with the second years to read and discuss the writing component (aka thesis) they produced this year. What they wrote, why they chose the form they did, and how they did it.
Session Thirteen
DEADLINE TEXT ON METHOD
Today you will make the finishing touches to your ToM.
Agenda:
10:00 meet to set achievable aims for the day.
What needs to be done to finish the text?
How will you respond to points made in the feedback?
Throughout the day: Steve will be around to discuss your texts
UPLOAD ONTO WIKI LINK TO TUTORS
Session X Drafts for Steve to give feedback and comment
upload text on wiki (as word file or as wikipage)
Getting to final draft stage, TEXT ON METHOD
Bring your draft (or upload on wiki [above], or as word doc) to the small project space and Steve will read and give feedback.
Session Eleven = No Part of the Buffalo is Wasted
The printout, cutup & stick together
Please print everything you have written for this class
10:00 Cutting up and assembling text around a template
14:00: make a new document of your cutup
16:00:Meet in Prj Space to review progress and plan ahead. Bring your long piece of paper.
Before next session; make new doc by cut and pasting edits you have made
Outcome Session Eleven
Session Ten
The Question.
10:00 = 1) The Question
11:30 = 2) The Type Up
14:00 = 3) Annotating The Question (what questions and comments does the text you have made generate for your reader?).
16:00 = 4) The Review
OUTCOME SESSION TEN
Meet in Large Project Space at 14:00 for review of work done
Session Eight - 23-2-17
To prepare..
as a mental exercise...
imagine...
you have a show in
THE PERFECT SPACE and
THE PERFECT AUDIENCE
come to see it!
What is THE SPACE and who are the AUDIENCE and WHAT WOULD YOU SHOW THEM?
This session will involve
interview, transcription of interview and editing of interview.
Here is today's pad:
And here is the program:
10:00-16:00
1) Boomerang. Nancy Holt & Richard Serra
2) Perfect, Perfect
3) Normal, Usual
Normalville Contemporary Art Centre for Contemporary Art
[today's pad:]
Normalville Contemporary Arts Centre of Art (CACOA)
3 works will be installed in 1 of the 500sqft space.
What does the audience need to know about the work?
The audience live in Normalville but 90% of them are not from the art industry.
2 hour plan:
for 30 min ::::0) Prepare for the interview
for 30min :::: 1) You will be the curator and will ask questions to elicit responses from the artist (that will encourage the ppl from Normalville to visit the show?
for 30 min :::: 2) You will be the artist and will be interviewed by the curator on the show you are proposing, you will negotiate your position.
for as long as it takes ::::3) Transcribe the interview
for as long as it takes ::::4) discuss and edit interviews.
As artist: Plan the exhibition
As curator: Plan the questions you want to ask
For interview:
Talk NO MORE than 30 MINS -- or a focussed interview will become an 'interesting conversation'
Please don't talk "industry language"
References:
Tate Shots: 5 minute artist interviews: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/audio-video/search?
From 16:00
At 16:00 those who want to be part of the radio re-do meet in the small project space.
Session Steve will introduce the "orwell writing machine"
Orwell's Politics and the English Language
Outcome Session Eight
[[interviews]
16:30: Review today's session
Session Seven
Thinking together about reading
Today's outcome: a publication which survey's what we read, how we read it and why we read it.
10:00 Intro
'We are street readers [...] info junk dealers'
Reading: I Read Where I Am, Gerritzen & Lovink, eds.
10:15
brief discussion
Intro to survey with Steve as test subject
11:00
In pairs:
Player 1 types notes (half hour max)
Player 2 answers survey
Player 2 types notes (half hour max)
Player 1 answers survey
Survey:
Please talk to your note taker about your relationship with reading, please include discussion of the following
what you read:
Online
Magazines and journals
Currently reading
Do you take notes? if yes, how?
Could you talk generally about your reading history and reading habits?
14:00: Editorial team meets
16:00 review outcome
OUTCOME 1 Session Seven- IN PAIRS
OUTCOME 2 Session Seven - EDITORIAL TEAM
Editorial team work on texts made in pairs and synthesises them and uploads it here
OUTCOME 3 Session Seven- GROUP READING
Session Six. Writing Machines
This is the task for this session
Set yourself a writing assignment, design a writing machine.
Use the methods employed so far, or design your own methods, to develop a procedure (constraints) for writing (AKA a writing machine) You can use the methods we have experimented with = (for instance Task4; WHW; think of your subject from the point of view of ecology, machine, discourse; swap interviewee-interviewer roles...
Your subject: the piece you are working on now, the piece you have just finished or the piece you are about to make.
Word count 1500 words max
If last time you didn't get a chance to speak to Steve about what you want to achieve with writing over the next two years, sign up here and we will do it today:
http://pzwiki.wdka.nl/fineart/Calendars:Fine_Art_Calendar/Fine_Art_Calendar/26-01-2017_-Event_1
Timetable for this session:
10:00 Steve's intro
11:00-(1) make plan
12:00 (2) execute plan
15:00 upload outcome of today's session here:
Outcome Session Six
16:00 regroup to discuss todays outcome.
Session 8 december
10:00 Steve gives intro to: 'why the hammer can only think nail'.
A field exercise in which:
The subject is
1) an ecology
2) a machine
3) a discourse
11:00 - we go into the field, observe the subject and take notes.
15:30
Group performance of our notes in three acts
1) an ecology
2) a machine
3) a discourse
This session's outcome: a recording of the above archived on the wiki.
OUTCOME SESSION FIVE
Session Four. What kind of writing practice do you want to build?
Continue from the last session:
11:00-16:30
Meetings with Steve:
Aim: to talk about your ambitions over the next two years, specifically related to writing. What kind of writing practice do you want to build? Agenda: please consider these points of discussion beforehand:
1) What role does writing currently play in your practice?
2) What role would you like writing to take in your practice over the next two years?
3) What you read and how you read it – what you write and how you write it (from tweets to shopping lists)
4) Throughout, Steve will take minutes and hand them to you for your own use at the end of the session.
Sign up here:
16:15 Upload texts below:
16:30 Meet in Project space to recap the day’s activities
Outcome of Session Four
Session Three
10:00- 11:00
Meet in project space for update with Steve
Feedback from readers (continued from last session)
In groups of 2
(1) give feedback on the second draft of the What? How? Why? texts.
(2) Make edits to your text and upload changes
Session Three: weaving research strands, making collective notes
Task three
11:00-17:00
Select three things
1) a piece of media (YouTube clip, film, TV show)
2) a text you are reading which has a useful relation to your work
3) a work of art (by another) which delights or infuriates you
Make a link to media, text &c (where possible) here:
https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/
Bring a lap top
( When we discuss the texts you choose, Steve will outline handy note taking technique)
Outcome of Session Three
Please upload your wiki content on a new page here
Session Two: Trip to Gallery
Today's pad:
https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/
PLEASE BRING:
1) NOTEBOOK AND PEN
2) an OV CHIP CARD with a few Euro on it
3) and a PACKED LUNCH
4) STUDENT CARD/ and or/MUSEUM PASS/ ROTTERDAM PASS
16:00: Meet up back at the Piet Zwart to review work done.
16:30 Record outcome
17:00: Finish
Outcome 2 Session Two
Outcome 2 Session Two
and here is the sound file of your collective reading:
Session One
Today's Pad: https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/
Task Two:
10:00 Intro
10:00 - 12:00
Describe three of your works/ projects
for each work describe
What (100 words max)
How (100 words max)
Why (100 words max)
300 word description of three works = 900 words (max)
12:00
Outcome 1 of Session One
12:15 - 13:00
In groups of three,
Read each other's texts
Readers: give feedback (what were you given to understand by the text? how can it be improved to make it clearer?)
Writer: remain silent, do not try to defend the text, concentrate on what the text is actually communicating to your readers.
Make notes of your reader's comments
13:00 LUNCH
14:00 Continue reading in groups and making notes
15:00 Make changes to your text
Keep original draft
17:00 Meet in large group to review and to wind up
Outcome 2 of Session One
Steve will introduce next session.
17:30 FINISH
Intro Session Zero
Introduction to RW&RM by Steve Rushton
Today's pad:
VV
Following Steve's general introduction to methods in context of the whole course over two years.
(a) What happens in the seminar?
(b) How does this fit in with the other aspects of the program?
(c) How does the the seminar feed into the course over two years?
(d) what is your writing practice?
(e) what do you want to do with writing?
Note: For every session there is a different task, which employs a different writing method. I will set no assignments outside of the class, but you must commit to trying the methods I suggest for the day of the seminar. Over the three trimesters you will accumulate a collection of texts and approaches to writing which serve as a resource as you go into the second year.