==RW&RM LENS BASED 2017-18==
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
Intro Session Zero
Introduction to RW&RM by Steve Rushton
Today's pad:
Please upload notes on our discussion about your writing practice below.
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.
Session One
Today's Pad: https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/p/rw_rw_27-09-17
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
12:45 Please UPLOAD DRAFT HERE:
In groups of two,
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?).
Spend no more than 10 mins giving feedback on each text
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
13:15 LUNCH
14:15 Continue reading in groups of two and making notes
15:00 Make changes to your draft. (Keep original version below edited version)
16:15 Finish work on edit
16:30 Meet in class as group to review and to wind up.
On 21 Sep 2017, at 16:01, steve rushton <cramleydata@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
The texts are coming along well
I think I managed to give feedback to most of you, either face to face or on the wiki
For my written feedback, you will find the link on the page you worked on today to [SteveSuggests...]
I think the main thing I should stress, because it came up a lot today. Please consider the power of giving PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS of your work which evoke and IMAGE in the mind of the reader.
After editing your text I have a final task for you all:
All the texts are structured with the headings
WHAT
HOW
WHY
When you have finished making your edits delete those headings and read the text without them. You will see it has a structure whereby the subject is introduced and described, the circumstances of its creation are described and your motivation for making it are clear.
I'll see you all in the attic space in HALF AN HOUR (16:30) and we will wind up."
Session Two: Trip to TENT/WdW
Meet at TENT/WdW at 11:00
ADDRESS: Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam
BRING A PEN AND NOTE PAD
11:00 Andre will talk to about the piece by Rana Hamadeh in the WdW show TEN MURDERS OF JOSEPHINE
Take notes on what he is saying
12:00 we visit the show AMONG OTHER THINGS, I’VE TAKEN UP SMOKING TENT
12:15 Curator of the exhibition, Jesse van Oosten gives tour of the show
Task in tent:
Describe a work one (300 words max)
Describe work in relation to another work in the show or to the overall show (300 words max)
13:00 LUNCH
14:00 Meet back at the Large Project Space
Review work so far…
14:00: Meet up back at the Piet Zwart to review work done.
publish outcome
OUTCOMEOne4OCT – AMONG OTHER THINGS, I’VE TAKEN UP SMOKING TENT - your descriptions of works in the show.
OUTCOMETwo4OCT – Sound file of our reading from notes of WdW show
17:00: Finish
Session Three 25 Oct
10:00- 11:00
reading day
Bring a page from a text you are currently reading
You are where you read.
Outcome of Session Three
Please upload your wiki content on a new page here
(When we discuss the texts you choose, Steve will outline handy note taking technique)
make a note, in no more than three sentences, of what the text says and ... move on to the next page..
upload notes on the text you chose here
16:30 - Meet as big group to recap on work done.
Session Four
Content: Utopia and dystopia. Method: note taking , drafting and making outlines
AM:
10:00-13:00
Intro :
Utopia = The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Dystopia = Rick and Morty in Dystopia
Utopia
1) A brief survay of utopia
2) Modernist utopia
3) Design your own utopia
PM
14:00- 17:00
1) Review design of utopia - how can this feed into the eye project?
Initial ideas.
4:30
2) Sketches. A map , diagram, poster, sketch, or other small gesture toward your utopia.
Session Five
This weeks RW&RM session will be devoted to working on the pitch for the Eye project, which is next week. Bring all relevant material (sketches, tests, ideas and notes – including the notes on utopia taken at the last session).
10:00-12:00
We will discuss your material and the pitch so far,
Set achievable aims for the day
12:00-16:00
Make outline (if not already done)
Edit material to make draft pitch
outline
What?
How?
Why?
What audience do you want to produce.
16:00-17:00
Present draft and group feedback
https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/p/methodsLensBased22nov
Note: if you are not doing the Eye pitch you can make a pitch on your self directed research or photobook project. The same stages apply- collect material, set achivable aims, make outline &c.
Session Six - 6 December 2017
This week we will be winding up the year.
The methods session begins at
10:00:
(1) An outline of the archiving process with Andre
11:15 – 16:00:
(2) we will discuss the outline for your progress evaluation
Write outline which addresses the questions:
what have I done?
(eye, photobook, camera workshop, self-directed work, other…: what, how and why in each case)
What did I learn?
What do I want to do next?
In order to do the next thing:
What do I know already?
What do I need to find out?
How do I find out what I need to know?
Who can help me?
Illustrate lavishly
Load onto wiki (as pdf or as wikipage)
16:00 (3) Review work done
16:30 (4) Review first trimester of RW&RM
What worked?
What could be improved?
Session Seven
11:00 - 13:15:00
THE ROOM OF SILENCE
question 1: What are your ambitions for this trimester (Jan-April)?
question 2: What orders your life? (work for money; art work; big projects; family obligations; helping friends &c.)
question 3: What are you working on now? (what, how and why)
question 4: What choices did you recently make? (in relation to work) aka = identify choices you recently made.
question 5: Why did you make those choices?
question 6: What non-fiction have you recently read?
question 7: Describe it (aka what is the thesis and what does it conclude?)
question 8: How does it relate to your work? (aka = how is it useful to understanding your own work?)
question 9: Who is on your art radar? (describe the work)
question 10: Was media are you consuming?
question 11: Is there a relation to your work? What is it?
question 12: What question needs an answer?
12:15-12:30
THE TALKING ROOM
12:30-13:00
THE TYPE UP
LUNCH
THE TYPE UP (CONTINUED)
14:00
THE UPLOAD
upload your room of silence text here as pdf or as text
15:30 (meet in small project space)
THE READING & NOTE TAKING.
Read a text and take notes ( a text you are reading for a thematic project or a text you are reading in relation to your self-directed research. See Jstor for peer-reviewed texts). Ask: what is the writer's thesis? What is their conclusion? (you may also wish to address questions of method = how do they construct their argument?)
17:30 (meet in small project space)
THE RECAP
For next time: make pdf of text and find (at least) 2 images to go with it.
Session eight Jan 31
Steve is sick
Session nine Feb 14 (happy valentine's day)
LB1 RW&RM Steve in the small project space
10:30 start
Remember to upload your synopsis here (if you have not already none so):
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Upload_synopsis_of_text_here
Use Harvard method and add bibliography
and please add two images.
We will read and discuss your text, talk about other texts to read, write about and discuss research strands to follow.
The aim over the next few sessions is to bring material together in a 1500 word essay.
But for now we gather synopses, notes and research strands and build a resource.
Also please bring your notes and thoughts on the symposium.
EDITING TIPS
Session nine
Make synopsis of second text: make outline for 1500 word essay which compares the texts.
STUDENTS
Other methods to be applied later and to be amended
=====================================================================================================
==
==
==
=====================================================================================================
Other method exercises (Please add)
One day collaboration
Filter same information through different forms: report - review - interview
Session: messy writing task
Session: fable-writing w/shop
Session
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
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 = 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
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
Session
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
[[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