paisley pudge

cropped wip doodles of a friend’s wol. yes im slightly obessed. what about it. pp belongs to @paisleypudge​

Evaluative statement

Professional Practice lecture series –

I found Tessa’s professional practice lecture series incredibly useful. It allowed me to appreciate the many different avenues I could take once I leave university. I have always been interested and passionate about education and in particular creative education and its benefits concerning behaviour, mental and emotional wellbeing. When I left school, I was really upset to learn that my old school were stopping running GCSEs in drama and textiles due to loss of funding and staff redundancies. The creative arts in schools are essential to self-expression, managing emotions and encouraging a career path in the creative industry. I have always loved the idea of becoming an art teacher and have previously done work experience in the art departments in high schools following the teachers and the technician to learn more about their jobs. This gave me more of an understanding about the current state of art departments in schools and I saw first hand the direct results of funding cuts.

My plan has always to apply for teacher training once I finish uni, but through the PP lectures and completing a “learning plan” has helped me identify which skills and experiences I already have that would be beneficial to being a teacher. Obviously all of my technical printmaking, painting, drawing and sculpture skills I have learnt through my own education (school, college, art foundation and at UWE!) and a series of trial and error experiments will aid my application, but also considering my own experiences working in retail since I was 16, my volunteering experience with the Girl Guides and other pieces of work experience I have done with my local museum whilst I was at college. I grew up with my nan running a children’s home for disabled teenagers and my mum worked as a school nurse then with social services in their emergency response team. Both of these things have been huge influences on my ambitions and have given me inspiration to work with children/teenagers with additional needs or on the pastoral care side of education. Tessa made me realise how all of this information is actually incredibly valuable and would support a teacher training application – and has even made me think about working as a teaching assistant or technician (or even an artist in residency within a private school) before undertaking the teacher training so I can ensure I feel confident within the classroom setting. I have also been inspired to look into other roles within education such as an educational welfare officer which is basically the foundation of most pastoral services.

The mock interview we did with Tessa was quite funny really – as I’ve had loads of interviews before due to part time jobs and university applications, but I’ve never actually interviewed for a teaching-based job. It was challenging in the way that I had to think quickly in response to the questions (and that it was in front of the rest of the class!) but I think I did a good job and it gave me an understanding of what would be required for a teacher interview, for example, I would probably be asked to do a lesson with a class so they could observe me.

Some books I have read that I feel are integral into my understanding of education and what makes a good teacher –  

Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy.

The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell.

Both of these books discuss education and the lesser value placed on the creative arts subjects – as both authors are creative writing English teachers by trade. Kate Clanchy works in an inclusion unit and discusses her entire experience of teaching and how to use poetry as a medium of self-expression through class and language barriers. She talks of how she began to understand that a lot of the children she was teaching were facing incredible difficulty or responsibility at home and how that influences the way a child or teenager would behave in school and eventually how that would effect their life trajectory. Erin Gruwell was a newly qualified teacher going into a “left behind” English class on Long Beach, USA, teaching teenagers the value of the written word, and their experiences. The students were inspired by the Diary of Anne Frank and eventually raised enough money to bring Miep Gies (the woman who hid Anne and her family) over to their school for an interview. Erin Gruwell set the class an assignment of keeping their own diary, and this book is the published result of that assignment. Reading it, you get a sense of some of the harrowing experiences these students (most from non-white, working class backgrounds) experienced, from sexual assault to gang violence. I feel like these books gave me the knowledge to understand the reasonings behind people’s behaviours but also gave me a sense of understanding in my own behaviours during my school years as a reaction to my home life where my mum had cancer and my parents awful divorce.

Work experience –  

My experience volunteering for the Guides has been really enjoyable and I’ve learnt a lot. I was a Brownie and a Guide when I was younger, and the experiences I had were some I would never have had. It is an organisation I can align my beliefs with. They are an inclusive safe space for girls and young women to learn, grow, be creative and give back to their communities. It provides a foundation for friendships and new experiences. I feel proud to volunteer for them. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 our Summer Term activity (a play organised by the girls) has been cancelled as we can’t hold our meetings. This is such a shame as it was something me and our unit leader Hazel had organised together – and I was going to start running to occasional unit meeting in preparation for potentially undergoing youth leader training over the summer holidays. We already have to complete a DBS check as well as do regular online training for safeguarding purposes. This has given me a lot of experience in understanding what actually goes on within youth-centred groups. In the future, I’d like to try and arrange work experience/volunteering for a non-religion youth organisation as I’d like to see the work youth workers do in relation to keeping at risk teenagers safe.

I have been in contact with my old head of year from school who is now the head of inclusion in a behavioural referral education centre and I had work experience arranged with him (end of May 2020) to get an idea of how these inclusion units operate, but due to Covid-19 and the UK being on lockdown this has been cancelled (hopefully I will be able to rearrange this for the future!). I also had applied for a job as an exam invigilator at our local grammar school in the hopes I would’ve been able to invigilate their A Level and GCSE art exams to give me an idea of how the qualifications are run – but again, due to Covid-19 I never actually heard back from the job application due to all exams being cancelled. I approached a few art therapists about work experience, but this was all denied as they only take work experience students direct from counselling programmes.

In the past, I have done a few one-off days during work experience in my old school where I ran workshop sessions for their GCSE students. This is something I was really excited to start contacting schools about before they broke up for the summer – especially as my old art teacher has invited me back into my old school in October to talk to her groups about higher education in art. Not many students go onto college in the first place, let alone choosing an A level in art so this was something I was really excited to do – hopefully it will go ahead! My ideas for workshops included a basic lino printing and pattern workshop for the GSCE textiles students and a paper sculpture workshop where the students printed their thumbprints, and drew them out on big, thick paper and painted designs onto their shapes – then we would cut the shapes out so they were all in one big, continuous line and we hung them from the ceiling with a spotlight on them to create all sorts of shadows and shapes across the walls, which they would then draw with drawing ink to create these beautiful line drawings. Hopefully, I will be able to run this workshop eventually as I’m really excited by it!

Lucy’s research talk + studio chats with her –

I found Lucy’s research talk the most engaging in relation to the similarities between her work and my work. I love pattern, and frequently get myself caught up in questions on why pattern exists. Her video where she created a drawing device she attached to her feet and then recorded her movements whilst swaying her baby to sleep was something really interesting especially when documenting patterns of movement as well as aesthetic patterning. The drawings she made in collaboration with a maths/science (I can’t figure out whether it’s maths or science?) expert in producing a drawing showing complex systems fascinated me and made me think about the way different people can learn.

I would have loved to have heard a recording of the conversations they had!

Me and Lucy always have really interesting conversations in the studio. One particular conversation that was very useful happened in January when I was embarking on my quilting/pattern-based work. It feels like I can blurt out all of my brain jumble and Lucy can just put it back into order for me! She suggested I look into feminist theory on pattern and repetitive art and the (kind of out-dated idea now) that there was a socially ingrained reason the first big female artists were interested in pattern. This was an incredibly big question to consider – in the end, I decided that I felt like the repetitive rhythm of pencil marks that I found so soothing was to do with the therapeutic nature of the gesture rather than any age-old social construct. I feel the same with collections – a small collection of my belongings discussing the ideas of materialism/what qualities I cherish within an object and doing small drawings of the contents of my bag. These things I might never have discovered without my research after our conversation.

Visiting speakers –

Lucy’s work with the complex systems reminded me of Kate Hopkins’ lecture on imagination and the difference between people’s brains. She explained how she cannot mentally visualise. This made me think about the different ways brains work and how people understand visual material. If someone without an art background were to see my work, how would they understand it? Would they need contextual information? We already know people process colours differently, do objects look different to different people? How would my work be seen in a gallery space vs in a home? Would this effect the way people understand my concepts and the aesthetics of my work?

I also thoroughly enjoyed Tom Musgrove’s talk where he discussed honestly his struggle with making work initially leaving university and talking about his financial difficulties in the beginning. I feel like this resonated with me because it gave me a true representation of how life as a freelance artist is, without financial backing from parents.

A brief glance at San Diego culture: Does San Diego really have something for everyone?

“Stay classy, San Diego.”

Have you ever heard a line so poetic? Has anything ever spoken so clearly to the depths of your soul?

Perhaps not, but either way, you probably recognized the quote. Whether you’ve seen Will Ferrell’s Anchorman or not, the chances are high that you understood the reference and are now thinking about either Ferrell’s comedic genius, or San Diego. My hope is that you’re picturing the sunny, balmy, relaxing city of San Diego, with its crystal blue waters and luscious palm trees. Perhaps you’re envisioning yourself touring the tropical paradise, and wondering what the city really has to offer besides it’s pop-culture one-liners. If so, you’re in luck: keep reading for your all inclusive guide to the current culture of San Diego.

Founded in 1542, San Diego was first inhabited by Spaniards and was used jointly as a missionary and a harbor. It has since grown to be the 8th largest city in America, boasting a total of 1,301,621 residents. Every year, masses of citizens migrate to the southern coastal city, and it’s no wonder why: San Diego offers something for everyone.

Surfer’s Paradise

When one thinks of San Diego, or Southern California in general, one would tend to think about the surf culture. From movies to books to clothing lines, everyone can see that San Diego represents the ultimate surfer’s paradise.

This culture was acknowledged nationally in 2011 in Surfer magazine. This magazine, the largest and most circulated surfing magazine in the US, declared that when it came to the top universities for students that enjoyed surfing, San Diego held five of the top ten positions. More recently in 2013, the University of California, San Diego was awarded runner up for the same award by the “Surf Channel” (a nationally broadcasted television channel). UCSD released a press release regarding the award, and Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla praised the school by saying that “in addition to being an academic powerhouse, [our] vibrant campus community and incredible location on the Pacific Ocean offer students a variety of unique opportunities outside the classroom."

However, this draw of surfing isn’t just for those in college. Many Southern California cities (most of which are in the greater San Diego area) make much of their revenue from surfing tourism. Tourists come from all over the United States to camp or lodge on the ocean side in hopes of catching some waves, or at the very least, learning to catch said waves (it could be argued that some of us--me--might never leave the ‘learning’ phase).

Pharmaceutical Industry

One of the most surprising things San Diego has to offer is its ever growing pharmaceutical industry. Since the turn of the century, San Diego has become a hotbed for large medical research facilities, including big names such as Johnson & Johnson.

The close proximity to students at top research institutions in the Silicon Valley and the research done at UCSD makes San Diego a prime spot for these new industries. Currently, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the top employers in San Diego, and continues to grow every year.

Writer for Nature journal, Paul Smaglik, discusses this trend in his article “Best of Both Worlds”, noting the strong connections between these companies and the research done by local universities, such as the University of California, San Diego. Smaglik interviews Mike Varney, VP of drug discovery with the company Pfizer, who notes that research done by UCSD “was a contributing factor to setting up diabetes and obesity as a therapeutic area [in San Diego]... and a useful consulting relationship now exists between the company and [UCSD]”.

As one can see, San Diego truly has something for everyone. Whether it’s the love for the great outdoors or a love for helping others through science, San Diego has a ton of options. For students, San Diego offers a wide variety of universities with a focus on the outdoors, and an environment for growth after graduation. For adults, San Diego offers a vast amount of employment opportunities and a growing city with new offerings every season.

Questions for Further Research:

What does San Diego offer for families? 

What type of cultures are represented in San Diego?

What are some of the most popular places to visit in San Diego and why?

What are popular times to visit San Diego?

Suggestions for Further Reading:

Smaglik, Paul. "Best of both Worlds." Nature, vol. 426, no. 6967, 2003, pp.

706-7, ProQuest Central; SciTech Premium Collection,http://du.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/204510554?accountid=14608.

Surfer. “Top 10 Surf Colleges.” SURFER Magazine, SURFER Magazine,

18 Apr. 2011, www.surfer.com/features/top-10-surf-colleges/#moAPH7wHtivljeWJ.97. Accessed 25 Apr. 2017.

“Top Employers.” San Diego's Top 10 Employers,

www.sandiegostop10.com/Employers.aspx. Accessed 25 Apr. 2017.

"UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO RIDES WAVE OF

RECOGNITION AS TOP SURFING SCHOOL." US Fed News Service, Including US State News, Feb 22, 2013, ProQuest Central; SciTech Premium Collection, http://du.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1291503559?accountid=14608.

Joe Bloggs Bloggs

Hello again to our digital community! I’m not really sure when the term Joe Bloggs came about but its use as a place holder name seems very relevant in an time when your average Joe Bloggs might well be a blogger!

This week I will be examining the effects and impacts of blogging, while sharing a few instances that it has personally affected my life. McCosker and Darcy (2013, p. 1267) see blogs as a kind of public diary, which can provide a therapeutic effect for those suffering from severe illnesses. In this instance, a blog allows the person to post intimate and personal experiences which can take the edge off potentially awkward social situations, giving friends the ability to follow their journey online. Unfortunately, this also allows the possibility for fraudulent behaviour.

Woman 'faked' ovarian cancer to collect $55,000 in online donations, court told

This woman, Lucy Wieland, faked having ovarian cancer and raised money by blogging her experiences along the fictitious journey of ovarian cancer (Rafferty 2018). The reason this is so personal to me is that her boyfriend was a member of the army who I met a few years ago at mates a funeral. He would share her ‘experiences’ on Facebook so I was following the story quite closely (thankfully not donating!) although it is unsure whether he knew about the fraudulence, although my gut tells me he didn’t.

But what draws people to blogs or to be bloggers? According to Cross (2011, p. 38) it is the chance to share personal experiences with interested audiences, allowing some to become powerful social influencers. These influencers are able to use their mass followings to increase traffic on certain posts or items simply through their own endorsement (Cross 2011, p. 38). I have recently experienced the power of social influence in a very unexpected way. This came in the form of social influencer in chief Kim Kardashian’s endorsement of the buy-now-pay-later group AfterPay Touch Group Ltd (Mosaleva 2018). Kardashian has a staggering online following of 59 million Twitter followers and 120 million Instagram followers who are largely in Afterpay’s target market (18-34 year olds) according to Mosaleva (2018). Why does this matter to me you ask? I hold shares in AfterPay and Kardashian’s endorsement caused the share price to spike by 10-15% in 24 hours which is quite incredible.

Sukhraj (2017) outlines some key blogging statistics and considerations for 2018.

53% of marketers are making blogging their top marketing priority when it comes to content

blogs that stand out are more likely to be read as 43% admit to skimming posts

the number of bloggers in 2020 is expected to reach 31.7 million

blog articles with images get 94% more views

the average word count of top-ranking content (in Google) is between 1,140-1,285 words

blogs have been rated the 5th most trusted source of information

Nearly a decade ago public relations expert Mark Penn (cited in Cross 2011, p. 37) saw ‘Bloggers’ as the Fifth Estate in the US, providing significant competition to the press. It certainly seems like he was right as both blogging and microblogging continue to expand and gain legitimacy.

References

Cross, M 2011, Bloggerati, Twitterati: How Blogs and Twitter Are Transforming Popular Culture, ABC-CLIO, LLC.

McCosker, A & Darcy, R 2013, ‘Living with Cancer’, Information, Communication & Society, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 1266-1285.

Mosaleva 2018, ‘Even Kim Kardashian is ramping AfterPay Touch Group Ltd shares’, The Motley Fool, 29 November, viewed 05 December 2018, https://www.fool.com.au/2018/11/29/even-kim-kardashian-is-ramping-afterpay-touch-group-ltd-shares/

Rafferty, S 2018, ‘Woman ‘faked’ ovarian cancer to collect $55,000 in online donations, court told’, ABC News, 18 October, viewed 05 December 2018, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-18/lu-wieland-accused-of-faking-stage-five-ovarian-cancer/10391034

Sukhraj, R 2017, ’28 Little-Known Blogging Statistics to Help Shape Your Strategy in 2018’, iMPACT, 24 January, viewed 05 December 2018, https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/blogging-statistics-to-boost-your-strategy