Hangouts—12 January 2020

Forum Live

Good turnout today with 10 people participating: LS, KA, SG, CW, KW, AF, SS, NM, DL and me hosting.
KA wondered if having someone else produce the scans of her analogue work was acceptable. No one could see an issue with this, largely because many elements of the photographic process are already made by someone else: camera body, lenses, film, chemicals, sensors, etc.
AF raised the question of what a subverted landscape might be and if it would be acceptable in the Landscape course. NM indicated that she didn’t have a single (traditional?) landscape in her landscape set. CW suggested that we think of landscape as a metaphor.
KW is preparing her blog for assessment and was given a number of suggestions on how to do this most effectively for assessors. She also asked whether it would be acceptable to submit her work for DIC via Instagram. The answer was a resounding yes, with strong encouragement to have a backup plan in case there is a problem with the platform during the assessment period.
SG, a L3 student, is working on Polaroid landscapes and may have a book of her WiP to show us at the next Hangout. KA mentioned the collection of Polaroids she shot at Lacock Abbey.
KA agreed to host the next Hangout, likely on Jan 26.

Rest of the World Group

My second hangout of the day, but with fewer participants: LK, MR and MU. In short, two Canadians and two New Zealanders, none of us born in the country we live in.
LK is working on an essay of the ethics of the FSA.
One of us learned that assessors don’t read essays but depend on the judgement of the tutor involved.
MU mentioned the importance of patience and organizational skills for L2 and L3. Participants traded names of OCA students whose learning logs are particularly well laid out.
MR encouraged us to look at Time.com’s list of best photobooks of 2019. He thought American Origami looked particularly good.
LK suggested that MU look at the work of Shona Grant re: bookmaking.
I mentioned that I was looking at L2 courses now that I am close to completing L1. It seems that Documentary gives relatively little space to doing photography, while Landscape is lighter on research but may involve a project over a whole year. This could be a problem, given my travel plans. May also want to look at Self and Other and/or Digital Image and Culture.
MR agreed to host the next hangout, possibly Feb 23/24.

Hangout—12 December 2019

Today’s hangout was well-attended, with nine people participating for the full discussion and a tenth arriving for the last moments of the meeting. There were two major points of discussion:

AF was concerned about the possibility of self-plagiarism after a discussion with his tutor. Is there a chance that returning to themes or motifs may amount to an inappropriate use of one’s own work?

The consensus was that self-plagiarism was only a real danger if one submitted the same, or substantially the same, work for more than one assignment or course. In fact, tutor CS mentioned that it might be possible to go too far the other way by doing something completely different for every assignment and never really developing a body of work.

I am not overly worried about this, but I must admit that I have approached many of my assignments for OCA as a chance to try something new. My aim hasn’t been to aim for coherence but to use at least the Level 1 courses as experiments to see what I do and don’t like. If I don’t experiment now I may wind up producing much the same type of images that I have for years. We’ll see where this goes as I get ready to take on Level 2 early in the new year.
ES raised the topic of cliches and tropes, and what the different terms meant for our work. The other terms that she raised (such as “synecdoche”) were familiar to me from my studies in rhetoric and have been popping up in some of the theoretical readings we have been asked to read. The rhetorical terms are useful as shorthand but I wonder if we sometimes run into difficulty as we transpose them from the written/spoken word to a visual language. It seems to me that theory and technical language are only useful insofar as they allow us to understand, but they should never be allowed to get in the way of effective communication. They should follow the process of making art, rather than controlling it.

I volunteered to host the next hangout session on January 12, 2020 and have set things up on the OCA website to allow people to sign-up and identify their topics for discussion.

Hangout—2 December 2019

Eight of us participated in this Forum Live discussion (CW, AK, AF, JC, KA, SS, NM and me) and it was good to see some new faces.

The first item of discussion was SS’ wish to find a way to better photograph his pencil drawings from a sketchbook. He wanted to be sure to capture not only the correct nuances of shading and line depth/blackness, but also something of the texture and tone of the paper itself. This led to a number of suggestions (and a bit of a tutorial) about how to use a histogram to adjust curves and black/white/gray points to achieve desired results in an image.

AF presented some WIP for a project tentatively titled “I am still here.” The work comprised a series of photographs that were taken on a neighbourhood walk, almost a return to EYV’s Square Mile assignment. Participants viewed the images and made suggestions about sequencing and how it might be important to provide the viewer with some context for understanding them, given that the individual photographs depicted fairly mundane settings. Although some pictures have interesting compositional elements, it won’t necessarily be clear to others what the photographer had in mind. AF himself wasn’t entirely clear on how to pull the images together, although the resonances with his childhood were apparent (he has lived in the same neighbourhood all his life). CS thought the work had potential and suggested including an artist’s statement, with pairs of images playing off one another.

There followed a question and response from KA, who wondered whether using film would be acceptable for her next course (first at L2?). The answer was a clear ‘yes.’

The group decided that it would be good to meet once more before Christmas and then again a month later. The next dates are December 15 and (tentatively) January 12.

All going well, I will try to have most / all of my CAN A4 essay ready for the Dec 15 discussion.