The feedback from my tutor for assignment two had a familiar feel to it:

as s set it quickly becomes a little predictable and rather functional, like you’ve taken a promising initial idea and not really been able to expand on it beyond a basic illustration of objects that connect to electricity and technology. Each photograph doesn’t really add anything new to the ‘argument’, so further thought on how to visual communicate the nuance of your critical perspective on technology is needed.

There’s evidence of solid, regular engagement with research on your blog, but this particular assignment is rather light on it.

Assignment 2 feedback

I know that for this assignment I was not really clear about what I was trying to communicate but more fundamentally I have struggled with the process of taking a subject and then working out a way to express it visually. In trying to understand why this is I have spoken at length with my wife and she had been brutally honest in telling my that I don’t think hard enough when starting an assignment, nor do I bounce ideas around to try and weed out the bad ones and develop the more promising ones and as my tutor pointed out I need to research my assignment ideas rather than just working through the exercises and research points.

The feedback has been pretty blunt but the real challenge is not in accepting it but rather how to change my approach to assignments in order to produce more successful work. I know submitted the images for the assignment even though I was totally happy with them but I felt I needed to put something forward otherwise I might still be trying to work out what I should be doing and I want to avoid being in the same situation for future assignments.

I have decided to try making three changes in the way I approach the course to improve my assignments in particular. The first of these is my approach to generating ideas. Whilst I have been working through the exercises and trying to read up on the various photographers and their work that we are directed towards, I have not made any real attempt to research any of the ideas I have thought about for assignments. As a result I think my ideas narrow down too quickly and I fail to deviate from my normal thought processes and ways of working. I am going to try doing more research at the start of future assignments, and re-working assignment two, and bouncing ideas of my tutor and family if I am still not sure if I’m on the right track.

I also recognise that I need to engage with other students more to get their feedback and opinions. I know that part of my reluctance to do so in the past is because I am not confident about the quality of the work I am producing and when I look at the blogs of some of the students who are more active on the discussion forums I feel that what I am producing is very sub-standard. I think I just need to get over it! Ultimately we are all doing these courses for our own reasons and it is not a competition and if the feedback is negative I can take it on board if I think it is valid and well reasoned or choose to disregard it if I think otherwise. I know from the few times that I have responded to requests for feedback that I find it quite difficult as I don’t feel I am qualified to make more than very limited observations about other people’s work and I think this has also contributed to my reluctance to invite critique but I think it will be better to have something rather than nothing.

The other area I need to change is my use, or lack of, notebooks and how I record and develop ideas. At the moment I sporadically write notes on whatever paper is to hand but I don’t use a notebook consistently and I don’t use mind maps or other visual techniques to try and expand my thinking and develop ideas. Going forward I recognise I need to change this and to keep all my notes in one place and more importantly I need to use it not only to note down ideas but also to expand and develop them in the hope that it will enable me to produce more compelling work.

Having identified areas in my approach that are not working and what I need to change the challenge now will be to follow through and not slip back into my normal way of working and go on producing work that I’m not happy with and which gets the sort of feedback set out above.