Blog 1

Reasons for doing a master’s course:

Welcome to my series of blogs as part of my MA module. In this blog I'm going to talk about why I decided to start this Fine Art MA course and offer a little evaluation on last year which was my last in my undergrad in Creative Arts at Aberystwyth School of Art. I will then consider what I might do this year and next year in my postgraduate project.

I really enjoyed my final year in undergrad; I did an interdisciplinary practice module in which I made posters and an interactive exhibit and for the exhibition module and subsequent degree show I was doing printmaking on fabric. In both projects I chose, I used influences from my interest in posters and more graphic design. I was trying to narrow down my art practice to something less broad because I'm quite a multimedia artist in general and I focused in my third year in more three dimensional installations for exhibiting projects and particularly work that had a more interactive or immersive aspect in the display as I felt that was important in making the work more engaging and accessible to more people.

However, as my final year was coming to an end, I was realising that obviously my art journey wasn't over, but also that I didn't want my learning in an institution period to be over because I enjoy having influences not only from my tutors but being around other practicing students and artists as that is something that helps develop your work. It is a great place to be where you can bounce around ideas and have access to studio space, facilities and equipment that you won’t at home and probably not cheaply, especially in a rural area like Ceredigion.

I also had projects that I knew that I wanted to carry on with and resolve, and I wanted to do that with some more supervision and learn about the art world more generally, like what opportunities there are, what I could do in the future. I spoke to people that have done the MA and my tutors at the time, explaining how you how the course works and what modules there are and I thought, yes, this would teach me a lot and it's an exciting thing to do and pushes me even more which I always need even if I’m resistant. The bit I was most apprehensive about but also most excited about, is the Vocational Practice module, having to do some art tutoring and giving presentations and making a website, doing professional minded things related to art that often you wouldn't get to do. In the first couple of weeks of the course, I found it very exciting and it was nice to meet all my classmates and there's a good mix of ages, experience and interests which is really nice.

My task then was to come up with a theme to work with, as for your portfolio you can choose whatever subject or medium you want to work in. As my main discipline is interdisciplinary, it depends on which projects I pick what medium I may work with, but as a runner I wanted to explore art and running in conjunction again which I did a bit in my first year. However, I really wanted to do some deep research and more experimentation related to that as I think it's an interesting avenue of inquiry and it's personal to me and something that I could get a lot out of in my two years here.