LAUIL601 - PRACTICAL PEER REVIEW 1 & REFLECTION

W/C 29TH Oct PRACTICAL PEER REVIEW

PEER FEEDBACK

INITIAL REACTIONS TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS
-research questions is relevant extension of personal practice concerns
-need to clarify which are the traditional crafts & processes associated with the working class
-could consider a range of crafts that are traditional, but re-appropriate them for a modern society

INITIAL REACTIONS TO PRACTICAL WORK
-beautiful exploration of processes relevant to theme
-solid application of colour, relevant to contextual aesthetic
-intriguing how the crafted skills will be employed in more narrative outcomes

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL
-effective link with practical work drawing on the contemporary perspective of traditional, industrial crafts
-could benefit from some clarity of intention> education, promotion of heritage?

PROPOSED OUTCOMES
-the use of highly technical processes seems too ambitious, consider reducing scale of outcomes in order to fully explore the crafts
-consider more accessible application, how does your practical determine the audience that can be reached?

IMPROVEMENTS TO MAKE
-consider how you could establish a sense of community as this is unclear as yet
-explore quicker processes to generate ideas and narrative, and to add to volume of work

How am I going to draw a synthesis between my theoretical and practical concerns?

PRACTICAL REVIEW REFLECTION (500 words)

As a first practical feedback session, the peer review served really well to help me consolidate my direction, and drive the pace of my development. At this stage I feel as though my work hasn't quite got a grounding or direct purpose yet so this helped to identify where my practical work sits within my thematic and contextual concerns. Having invested a great deal of time and effort in teaching myself weaving, I am keen to pursue works with a high technical competency as I feel this is most relevant to the industrial context surrounding my research. The weaving I have completed so far served as an investigation into the woven construction of shape; a consideration parallel with the examples in my case studies. Technically, this process really celebrates the heritage and tradition of craft appropriate to my contextual research, however, having learnt how long it takes to produce, I may need to explore more commercial outcomes, inline with my intent to re-appropriate these crafts for a modern community.

From the feedback I received, it seems that my aesthetic approach is appropriate and reflects the concerns of my research, but feedback suggested that there needs to be a clarification of narrative and purpose. While my written work justifies the relevance of such processes, it does not necessarily explain the relevance of the application I have used. The woven banner simply serves as a sampler for a complex heritage process, but in order to attain synthesis across my project, I must now continue to pursue the narrative and linguistic elements I have briefly explored in ink drawings. As outlined in my proposal, language is pivotal to the transmission of meaning and I will now look into how I can merge my narrative concerns with more technical practical outputs.

From the critique, I gathered useful observations on the functionality of my work through its aesthetics and accessibility. Having explained to my peers the intention to use the banner form to promote holistic identity for modern communities, they did suggest that a modern community may not resonate with a highly crafted, woven banner, in the same way as the communities who pioneered it. This certainly seems important to consider in the development of my practical research as accessibility underpins the intentions of the research and as such, more commercial processes may need to be explored.

Moving forward, the integration of narrative and process will be pivotal to a developing synthesis between my contextual and practical concerns. Exploring more commercial processes such as screen print or heat transfer may enable me to continue to explore textiles but in a playful manner that corroborates my commercial intentions. There has certainly been some successes in the investment in weaving, and exploration of typography as I feel both are natural continuations of my wider practice, but both are relevant to the research proposal and so far, have driven an appropriate traditional aesthetic.