Presenting my personal practice to MA students

Following an invitation from Cinzia Cremona, which I was very pleased to accept, I spent a very enjoyable Saturday this week working at the Minories, Colchester School of Art delivering a presentation and workshops to a welcoming group of students on the MA Contemporary Art and Professional Practice.

I delivered a presentation detailing my personal creative and educational practices and I was inspired and challenged by the questions posed to me, during and following my presentation, by both students and course lecturers.  It is always a great educational session when I also leave with additional ideas and thoughts to those I had had prior to arrival!

Following my presentation, I invited the students to engage in an extended discussion about 'the book'.  They willingly shared experiences, thoughts and ideas with each other.  As a result of the final part of the discussion, the following definitions of 'book' were devised by the four groups:

Group 1    
A book should have different surfaces, three dimensions and an inside and an outside and it should be hold-able.  Book work is something that references the traditional or historical book.
Group 2    
A three dimensional, visual, tactile element of communication.
Group 3    
A book is a book if it is consumed as such.
Group 4    
A book communicates a memorable (semi) permanent message through a changed surface.

Following the break for lunch, I led a workshop on book making, which gave the students knowledge and practice in elements of the bookbinding / making process which they can each take away and practice, develop and build upon if so desired.

I would like to thank Cinzia for the invitation and warm welcome and to lecturers Marsha and Judith for additional questions and feedback.  I would also like to thank the group of MA students who were enthusiastic and participated fully in the programme of the day.

To find out further details about the course MA Contemporary Art and Professional Practice, led by video performance artist Cinzia Cremona visit the link HERE.

I now look forward to the MA group's interim show in the coming year 2014... 

A blog post relevant to the course students detailing links to equipment suppliers is HERE.