BA Fine Art: From thinking to doing

One of the problems that has to be overcome with all students is that they can think too much. Thinking is OK but it has to lead somewhere, so this set of stages were looked at and then developed as a handout to help students think about where they were. Most importantly this was seen as a circular process.

BA Fine Art: From thinking to doing

Formative stage

The formative stage of creative thinking is often linked to the application of various processes that enable us to ‘think’ about existing things differently. This should enable us to develop ‘novel’ or ‘unusual’ approaches. Approaches such as brainstorming, producing mind maps, listing, forming random word associations etc. may be useful as starting points.  A set of typical approaches is available in the handout ‘Towards Constructing Praxis’.

Evaluative 1^st stage

Deciding on which idea to pursue is often harder than coming up with ideas. There are however several ways that processes of evaluation can be developed.

1. The crit. The crit is a good way of getting other people to comment and advise on how to go forward. Other people are often better than yourself at spotting the best ideas. Their objectivity is sometimes hard to take as you have often invested more in some ideas than others, but time and involvement do not necessarily make the best results. Typical approaches to a crit. are available as a handout and these can also be used to develop self-evaluation strategies.
2. Self-evaluation. If you are to self-evaluate it’s a good idea to set yourself some rules. This can help you focus on the differing issues that could impel a work forward. The main issue is that you need to be able to define a practical way forward. This usually means that you will need to make things and the process of making then starts to inform the idea with a physical existence. You will have to assess how the nature of the medium used, (plaster, clay, paint, lino, collage, video, photography etc. etc.), invests the idea with its presence. Making art implies that physical objects, videos, photographs etc. all embody concepts and these concepts are derived out of a combination of historical models, contemporary practices and the nature of the specific medium.

Developmental

At this stage the most valuable thing you can do is make variations. The more you make the more you are able to discover potential and find surprises. Again the more systematic you are the better. For instance you may make variations of:

1. formal issues; changes in composition, lighting, scale, proportion, colour, texture, size, tonality etc.
2. context; changes in relationship, position, shifting of meaning etc.
3. method; film it, make it, cast a shadow of it, perform it, write it out, construct a diagram of it, print it, dig a hole for it etc.
4. process; people and relationships, systems thinking, epistemic actions* modelling**, etc. again the processes listed in the handout can be useful as a prompt.

*the concept of epistemic actions (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994) are actions that do not traverse the problem space toward the goal but facilitate subsequent problem solving by changing the actor's cognitive state

**modelling; a simplification of reality intended to promote understanding

Evaluative 2^nd stage

This time the evaluation process can focus more on how things are done. Is it the right material, scale, process, context etc.

It may be an evaluation of a series of variations and a decision made as to which one works and which doesn’t. Why this is, is again a useful question to ask. Once this is decided upon, this may become the starting point for the next series of objects, paintings, videos, web-sites etc.

Again the crits and self-evaluation processes can be informed by a series of questions prompted by supporting handouts.

At this stage you may want to try out writing a rationale. This could involve you tracing back through the process you have taken so far.

Remember. These processes are prompts and the reality of any situation is that the indefinable mixture between intuition, emotional attachment and logic will ensure that everyone goes through this process differently and that there is no right way.

More reading or looking at other artists may help as this point. However be careful not to let theory get in the way. The ideal state to reach is that of ‘praxis’, where theory and practice are welded together.

Developmental 2^nd stage

How effective is the work? How can it be refined to maximise its potential? At this stage you should be thinking of ‘professional’ issues such as ‘finish’. How well should it be made? Should the object be manufactured or have a hand-made quality? Should film/computer footage be projected, on TV screen, shown within a specially made environment? Who is the audience and how can you present to them? How can you fund/build to the necessary scale/obtain the necessary technical equipment? Who else needs to be involved? Is the work about what you thought it was about or is it really about something else? As a fine artist you are not working to someone else’s brief and can shift emphasis or direction at will. It is whether or not it is interesting to you and whether or not there is potential to make an original statement. At this stage you may want to respond to crits but you have to balance what the others may say with how you see the resolution of your own ‘vision’. There is an issue over the ‘rhetoric’ that you are using to impel the work forward and the language that is evolving. Again you may want to develop your rationale to try and aid others in ‘entering’ into a dialogue with the work.

Evaluation 3^rd stage (Developing ideas towards the next piece)

Where and how should this work be presented? How can you maximise its potential? Should there be just one item on show, should there be several or a multitude? How can you move on? Which aspects of the work are potential development areas? How are thoughts about the presentation helping to open out potential for the work? What needs crafting to a higher resolution in future? Should it be bigger/smaller next time? What concepts were not fully fleshed out? Where were the interesting moments on the journey? Was I ambitious enough? Remember that being an artist is not about producing one offs. Work is part of a constant process and a new body of work usually starts before the old body is finished. In fact you are often still in the position of showing or presenting one body of work, whilst developing others. There is no clear starting or stopping point.

Third stage evaluation often then leads directly onto a new Formative stage

The process can therefore start all over again

Remember the old adage:

If I hear it I forget it

If I see it I remember it

If I do it I know it

I must look out some of the handouts. In particular the one on processes, students have found that quite useful and it would of course make more sense of this last post.