Guston4

I have decided that the area I wish to continue my M.A.in is FINE ART.

I would like to rename my M.A. as a Fine Art M.A. instead of Multimedia for the reasons detailed below.

I currently have two separate ‘reflective journals’ documenting my ideas and thoughts and research over the last two years.

The first could be described as the ‘DIGITAL’ blog and the second as the ‘NON-DIGITAL’. (Using Digital as a descriptor preferred by
Lev Manovitch in his recent article ‘After Software’as opposed to the less well used ‘new media’, ‘interactive’ or ‘multimedia’.)
http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2012/11/new-article-by-lev-manovich-media-after.html

The DIGITAL enquiry focussed to start with on GPS and locative notions of landscape (originally called TRACK) and tied in with the original intent of the M.A. to link directly via CPLD to my Trent teaching. With the closing of the Multimedia Course in 2013 and my own frustration and lack of interest in the ‘web and mobile apps’ field I would like to take this opportunity to move back to my preferred original nomenclature of the degree as ‘Fine Art’. As a title this far more appropriate to the actual content which I exploring which is fine art painting and film/photography. I have realised that a significant part of the ‘DIGITAL’ that did interest me and still does is the representation of landscape in digital photography and cinema. So this blog will continue to investigate this area. I am hoping that instead of an either/or situation that the Digital and Non-Digital representation of landscape and the tension between these areas will become the focus of my M.A. enquiry from now on.
Reflective Journal ‘TRACK’: https://shaunbelcher.com/fineart

The NON-DIGITAL enquiry is explicitly concerned with what one could describe as ‘hands-on’ practice – drawing, painting and writing. In this area I have created artworks for over 30 years much of it related directly to a specific location (one of the reasons for the GPS/Mobile focus of the original proposal). I have been operating in a new studio in Nottingham since May 2011 and I will be creating large paintings and a series of drawings over the next year. Material created and thoughts on this process are being assembled in the BLANK CANVAS BLOG.

https://shaunbelcher.com/canvas

 

ART HISTORY RESEARCH

FINALLY the third area I have been exploring through papers, cartoons and conferences is more theoretical and is really PhD rather than M.A. material in my opinion: This is contained in this blog.

https://shaunbelcher.com/rpt
(Theoretical research as a precursor of PhD)

 

This is where I think the work displayed in this blog is leading…..

The analysis of Frayling and cartoons which constituted this summer’s ‘research’ and the subject of this blog belong to a critical practice which really situated within a FINE ART PEDAGOGY and FINE ART THEORY field. As such they are relevant to the PRACTICE as supporting material but do not directly engage with my fine art practice. Rather it acts as a frame and exploration of that practice’s political and theoretical situation in the modern university. I can see it developing into further research and possibly a PhD related entirely to the theoretical problems of attempting a fine art PhD. In this I draw heavily on James Elkins’ recent publications and have been involved in many recent threads which James has started on facebook and online.
http://jimandmargaret.wordpress.com/