Chelsea Swan

I am going to be honest, even when teaching I found learning outcomes difficult no matter how much I broke them down. Who even writes these? Is not the mark of intelligence the ability to make the information you are putting forward accessible to the most people.

Ever wondered what you could do if you really tried and realised it was in fact a big old nothing?

Anyway…..

Blegh.

Ok.

Learning Outcome 1:
Formulate, describe and implement a challenging and self-directed programme of study, relating to your Study Statement.(Assessment Criteria: Enquiry)

I have participated in active learning by conducting research through making, reading, discussion, and gallery visits. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/spirographs-part-1/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/sylvia-plath/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/open-questions/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/12/grayson-perry-exhibition-edinburgh/

I have made progress in reflection, both in terms of my making process and techniques, as well as, more recently striving to be more reflective in terms of the ideas and motivations behind my work. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/the-me-in-my-work-being-more-reflective-why-this-and-that/

Play and experimentation are key factors in my practice. I like to explore, leaving myself open to going on tangents. When researching I like to follow the paths that feel most right to me at that time. I have learnt to be selective in order to avoid feeling I have wasted my time as I often feel there is too much that interests me, far more than I will ever get to truly look at or do. I try to avoid staying always in my comfort zone and I do try to look at alternate views to my own, but I also like to follow what brings me joy and would say that is the biggest criteria. I also explore in terms of methods of making and outputs and have plans to carry on doing so, such as making videos and animations (new mediums for me), as well as making masks, medals and shields (new subjects), all of which will also require further research, both in terms of making and ideas . I have also been exploring new avenues in what parts of myself, and my life, I put into my work. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/26/research-topic-dear-diary/

I have learnt more about my process and have utilized skills I already had and practices already in place in order to start exploring and formulating possible paths and routes using what I was already doing and was already interested in, as well as what I most wanted to know more about and implement in my practice.

https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/10/05/what-makes-me/https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/mind-maps/

I have also distilled these into more concise statements that describe what it is that I want from my practice and how it is that I endeavour to reach those goals. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/themes-in-my-work-and-the-me-in-my-work/

I have self directed my practice and research by creating a study plan and setting out what and who I want to research, as well as leaving myself time to go on tangents, and by setting out a plan of what it is I would like to make and how I plan to go about making it. I have done this on a large scale with the study plan and on smaller scales such as with the interim showpiece, while also allowing within the plan the option to change my mind and do something else. These are planned in a way that I believe will push me to learn more and be more creative and challenge my skills and ideas, such as by working on a larger scale, combining techniques or ideas, and allowing myself to be vulnerable in the process. https://wordpress.com/view/chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com

I have already started to follow the plans I have set out in my study statement and implement my goals, such as by planning my lampshades, acquiring them, and setting out what will be on each panel, as well as go on tangents and follow ideas that have interested me, leaving myself open for new avenues. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/lampshades-sketch-plan-the-why/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/26/lampshade-plan-digital/

Learning Outcome 2:
Implement appropriate working methods for building an independent and effective self-organisation that enables the critical engagement with practice-based research.(Assessment Criteria: Process)

Practice based research to me is the cyclical process of textual research and ideas, the self, and the creative output. So far on the course I have documented my journey of learning, and looking back over my blog I can see where I have developed and where I have held back. The blog has been a useful tool in seeing where I started and what proges I have made, as well as what has been most and least useful to me. The assessment period has been especially useful in taking the time to look back on the journey and think about where I would like it to take me next. Keeping the momentum going creatively by being accountable, through the blog, and now through instagram, as well as through the potential need to discuss my work each week during tutorials, and also one to ones, either with the boss man or with other students. This keeps me working so that I have something to say or something to show or something to offer. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/05/haven-caravan-nymphs/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/open-exhibition-home-manchester/

I have learnt to take risks. Where as for some this may be to do with mediums of executing ideas, for me it has been in exposing myself to the world and pushing into the discomfort. It has also been in pushing further into reflection and asking myself why I am interested in such and such and why I looking at certain parts of my life, even though I find it difficult to discuss myself or examine things too closely. I am also learning to, and leaning into, caring less about what people as a mass think of my work, trying to walk away from perfectly shaded pieces, and more into drawing in an instinctive way, discovering as I go what works for me and what brings me most joy. I do see that much of what I have written avoids why I have done the making. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/lost-treasures-still-precious/

but I am trying https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/closed-person-a-rant/

I have been experimenting with more three dimensional works such as lampshades, adding more decoration to my works and blurring the boundaries between the textile pieces and the drawings, as well as utilizing found things, and trying to not purchase new things in order to make my work more eco friendly. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/it-be-a-lampshade/

we don’t listen to music it makes us unstable.

The blog has also helped me in tracking and developing ideas from start to finish as I have been able to stop and asses at various intervals what is working, what is not, and flesh out the thoughts that surround a work at each stage in order to push them further. For example, I would usually have just made the lampshades, as I did with the last two, but in planning I have seen that some ideas were not working even as sketches and so they got scraped. I have been effective at self organization and my estimates for making work have been accurate so far. There is never enough time in the day and I do prioritise following what brings joy in my work and scratching brain itches over keeping to schedules. I have learnt to disregard and abandon books, ideas, pieces of work that are not working for me and start fresh or something new or make changes to how I am coming at things in order to develop. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/26/interim-exhibition-plan/       https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/goddess-drawings-interim-experiments/

The blog has also helped me implement appropriate working methods as it has kept me focused on what is working and what is not working in terms of textual research (which I am lacking in as I do need to start seeing reading and time not making as also working and not feel lazy or guilty about it as it is a key part of my practice and I am neglecting it) techniques, mediums, theory, and the ideas behind my work, as well as talking about my work and why I am making it which has been key in helping me understand and move forward with my practice. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/letter-experiments/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/26/not-so-much-a-goddess-part-two-machine-embroidery/

During my time on the course I have been blissfully left to direct my own work and path and allowed to be independant which I believe will set me up to better continue my practice when I leave the course. I have followed my instincts and left myself open which is both scary, the lack of boundaries and praise, but has resulted in me knowing what I am doing more full as it is all my own path. I have built up my practice since starting the course and have gained in understanding what it is I do and why as well as what works and what does not when expressing ideas. I can see this in the work I make and the way that I talk about it. I would like to build in more time to read and to research and to spend more time thinking through the blog as it has been useful and needs to stop being seen as a chore. Poor Blog. You can see this building on a small scale in the development of the study statement. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/accidental-study-statement/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/study-statement-one-first-draft/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/12/05/study-statement-the-saga-continues-rough-ideas/

I have tried to implement critical engagement with my own work, being reflective and discussing what works and what is not working, discussing problems and concerns, and either changing or accepting faults and disregarding or changing, and also looking at what is working and why and allowing it to continue as well as pushing further to see what can come of it, such as with the second lampshade and adding even more bling, and with the male nymphs, and with the visual and contextual diary exploration. I do however also think that I need to learn to put in my mistakes, my disregarded ideas, my attempts that failed, as I often just scrap them and have not been discussing what has not worked and why and what it was that failed which means I am not learning as much from the work as I could. I have also tried to critically engage with textual research and the work of others, looking at what I like and don’t like at exhibitions, my feelings toward separating the art from the artist, not allowing myself to live in an echo chamber, and discussing my reading with others, as well as on the blog (sylvia plath) . I do however need to discuss what I am reading more, rather than just highlighting and annotating and failing to put it on the blog. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/01/sylvia-plath-part-two-poetry/      https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/01/sylvia-plath-part-three-embroidery/

Learning Outcome 3:
Communicate a critical understanding of your developing practice.
(Assessment Criteria: Knowledge, Communication)

As stated above I have communicated the story of my learning and making by sharing it with an audience through the blog. You can see the progress of my thinking, theory, reflective practice, and making. I have attempted to make my work and writing accessible and clear and have presented it in an accessible format. I have also started an instagram to reach different audiences, and started to make work for shows such as the manchester open and the interim exhibition in order to communicate my ideas to different audiences.I do accept that I need to work harder at being more present in the world and am looking into ways that I would be able to achieve that. I am working on being less defensive and protective and allowing openness in order to be more accessible. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/open-exhibition-home-manchester/

I believe I have shown a critical understanding of developing practice throughout the blog. I believe my mind maps demonstrate that I am able to explore and expand when I get stuck as well as collect who I am and what I do, what matters to me, what interests me, and my outputs in order to distill areas and factors within my practice. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/11/26/accidental-study-statement/

A key part of my practice is my own lived experience and using my life and how I feel, how I see things through my own lense, the cultural, historical and social contexts I bring, and my past. I inform my practice and use autoethnographical research principles to draw on and analyzes / interpret my lived experience to explore self identity and its outside influences. I believe I need to be more reflective but I also don’t want to become over analytical, theoretical, or convoluted. I also don’t want to become preemptive in my practice. https://wordpress.com/view/chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com

I enjoy noticing and exploring connections and have always found deep enjoyment in discovering new connections. I have often used mind maps to do this and am always more than happy to go off on tangents. I like to collect thoughts and possibilities that are sparked by reading, gallery visits and making, as well as collect things that I see as interelating, such as artists, themes, aspects of myself, or my work etc. I quite like making lists and collecting things apparently. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/10/04/what-matters-in-my-work/   https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/documentaries/ https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/semiotics-of-feminity/

I can also appreciate what I do in a wider context and look at writers such as Sylvia Plath, Simone De Beauvoir, and Virginia Woolf, as well as artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin, and many others and see my work as an amalgamation and continuation of the conversations they were having. I am also aware of the political and philosophical and theories that my work aligns with. I am becoming more aware of the works of artist currently doing similar textile, feminist, and self based pieces like my own as I attempt to be more part of the world. https://chelseaswancsm.wordpress.com/2023/10/22/women-of-note-an-ongoing-list/

I also dont get why everything has to be so obvious all the time. No ethereal notions here please.