Video Tutorial and Written Feedback 4
In this fourth Video Tutorial session, we started from my learning log.
Following the two sessions I had with Ariadne Xenou and the in-depth analysis on the topic of learning outcomes, I wrote a post with my reflections on the subject.
These two sessions were very useful in helping me understand the four sentences that articulate the meaning of learning outcomes.
Based on this result, I decided to restructure the learning log, so that the areas of research and practice are clearly identifiable, but that the connection between the two is also clear.
In this way, I believe that I have achieved the goal of creating "informed connections" between research and practice, and have therefore demonstrated that my research work has and will test, inform and develop my practice.
My Tutor agreed on the restructuring of the learning log: now there is a clear distinction between research and practice activities, and at the same time there are explicit links between practice and research results.
The section dedicated to the project diary contains a summary of the results that, so far, I have achieved in informing my practice in the face of the studies and research results.
This also allowed me to orient myself in a subject as huge as psychogeography, and to identify in greater detail the content of my project.
My project, and the images that I will select, will focus on the theme of mental/emotional reactions to what one encounters during a drift and the stimuli that derive from it. For this reason, I thought of titling my self-directed project "Resonances", from the term that connotes what occurs (resonates) emotionally in the human mind and soul when observing something, in terms of imagination and/or memories.
My Tutor suggested that I consider what I studied in the previous units: "punctum" and "studium" in the texts of Roland Barthes. For me, it was a precious suggestion in order to focus attention on the right element of Barthes' semiology: I had spontaneously thought of Barthes, but I had concentrated on the meaning of "sign", without finding any analogy with my personal connotation given to resonances.
It will be interesting to insert this reference within the more general conceptual scenario concerning my psychogeographic exploration, the conduct of the flaneur and drifting.
My tutor also suggested that I read Sophie Howard's "the Mindful Photographer", to hone my approach to photography, especially outdoors.
Returning to the research and study of the various authors, when we arrived at the theme of the Flaneur, we agreed on the possibility that the theme of the Critical Review that I am about to start writing could be the different interpretations given to the figure of the Flaneur in historical periods and by some authors.
My Tutor agreed and warned me not to make a simple inventory of the various authors. At the same time, I could choose three case studies to deepen, even in a visual sense, and, instead of bringing out the different interpretations (again an inventory), find the common elements on which to reflect and arrive at the true shared essence of this controversial figure.
Speaking of other authors, we named Rebecca Solnit and David Byrne's "The bicycle diaries" which my Tutor considers very "flaneurial", by an author who has explored the various cities where his profession took him, by bicycle.
This is a good example of how research is refined by broadening horizons, seeking interdisciplinary or inter-thematic connections, and not being confined to the pure academic exercise of looking for material common to a single topic.
My research could therefore be guided by the most popular interpretations of the flaneur, but also extend to other authors, quite relatable to what I am doing in the practice.
We then examined some images of my fourth drift, in particular referring to experimentation of the method used by Eugene Atget (long exposures), but made during the day, with the use of a neutral density filter.
I was advised to use Padlet to collect my photos and exhibit them, as it is a tool also suitable for selection and visual arrangement as if you were acting on a table with prints.