Assignment 3: FEEDBACK.

I have received my feedback from my tutor for assignment 3 which is included below.

Overall Comments

You use a classically documentary approach to consider your landscape as ‘place’; however you haven’t really tackled the aspect of the assignment which asks you to also consider the landscape as ‘space’:

 The objective of this assignment is to engage with the question of how a ‘space’ becomes a ‘place’. Your project should put into practice the idea that a ‘place’ is a constructed, subjective term that, for whatever reason (political, industrial, mythological, environmental), is imposed upon, or becomes associated with, a particular ‘space’.

Feedback on assignment  

To create a series of upto 12 images to show the visible reminders of the Mining industry through the South Wales valleys.

You’ve submitted relevant and coherent selection of photographs exploring the idea of the valleys as ‘place’, supported in your notes by historical research.  The subject is a good one and informed by a close personal connection. However, to explore the space aspect of the brief you need to develop your assignment notes by adding a paragraph to your introduction considering the landscape specifically as a space that has become a place, and perhaps considering each image individually as place rather than space. Make sure you refer to the course notes and research points of Part 3 when making your argument, referencing all sources.

I was originally going to make a black and white collection of images as it would appear like old photos but when I thought about it, I decided against it. My reasoning behind keeping the collection in colour is because even though the images reflect on something so important to the history of the valleys, the images show how that past is seen today and therefore the photographs should show the landscape exactly as it is.

Good comment, showing development from Assignment 2

I’ve sent you a Dropbox link for future assignment images. The OCA guide to preparing digital files for assignments is here:

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/preparing_digital_image_files_for_tutor_reports_and_assessment.pdf

Please submit assignment notes as separate word - processed and spellchecked documents with future assignments together with assignment images.

Please don’t put your signature on the front of your images for OCA work. Add a formal declaration of copyright to your log or restrict access if you’re worried about security

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays  

By this stage in the programme it's a good idea to start polishing up your referencing. The Harvard system we recommend uses an abbreviated reference in brackets within the text and the full reference at the end rather than footnotes. Please check the OCA guide to Harvard referencing here:

http://www.oca-student.com/content/harvard-referencing-system-1

Try to consolidate the Context section of your log with some of the exercises and readings from the module. Add exhibitions, films and TV that you see that are relevant to photography. I like your own shots that you’ve added here presenting your own work, but adding a simple caption can make a series look like they are in a photo album or scrapbook rather than a learning log by offering a purely personal interpretation to the images which narrow down the wider meanings of photography that we’re interested in here.

Conclusions and targets for next assignment

Your prose style is good and I have no doubt that you can manage the academic content of Part 4. The key element however is exactly that - the academic requirement. You need to construct your argument around relevant practitioners, properly referenced using the Harvard system. Pay close attention to Project 1 of Part 4 of the course which will help you to do the assignment.

You ask if you could use your Assignment 2 for the review. Perhaps you could explore Google Streetview as landscape by asking the question –how well do these images conform to landscape conventions and at what point do they/can they become landscapes? Jon Rafman presented them in art galleries – does that make them landscapes? Fontacuberta’s Landscapes without Memory used map data to create completely artificial landcapes:

http://www.eyecurious.com/interview-joan-fontcuberta-landscapes-without-memory/

Please see attached pdf for more research pointers. Do get in touch if you’re having difficulties but please remember that specific questions with links are much easier to answer than broad general enquiries!

I wasn't particularly overwhelmed or disappointed in this feedback. I have taken more advise regarding my critical review and my learning log than from assignment 3 itself, which is great too. I have to polish up my referencing and have given a lot of thought to how I am going to tackle my next Assignment so I am grateful for this inclusion in my feedback. I can say now though that I am feeling slightly rushed to get through this next chapter and am panicking because if it.
But with regards to assignment 3, the one comment that my tutor did make was that I needed to include a paragraph in my introduction referring to the 'space' factor and not just about the 'place', So I have included that into my assignment in italics for you to be able to find the additional paragraph.