In this blog post I want to outline the different options prisoners have for carrying out the research element of their courses. As with most things relating to prisons, the specifics of each of these will differ between establishments, but what I want to emphasise is that it will very rarely be the case that someone can’t do research – it may just take a bit of effort on their part.
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This new foundation course introduces various key methods for material investigation, through approaches to making that challenge students to navigate, explore and respond to their three-dimensional environment. We encounter a vast range of materials and objects in our daily lives and this course enables students to exploit the materiality around them in creative ways, forming transferable skills for further study in different areas, primarily Creative Arts and Fine Art pathways.
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The past couple of weeks have found us in the middle of a culture war around statues and TV but, as Ash Sarkar reminds us, ‘the context of a work – film, telly, whatever – is bigger than that piece of content on its own. Meaning is what happens when a work is in conversation with its audience’.
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Tutoring prisoner students can feel like something of a minefield. It can be difficult to decipher fact from fiction from the information shared in the press about what prisoners do (and don’t) have access to, as well as what the individual is expecting from you, or you from them. Hopefully this series of blog posts can provide a bit of information and a few suggestions to help make this easier.
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In a time when we’re saturated with images of race and violence, reading an image should also involve thinking about how it positions me, the viewer, in relation to it.
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Last year OCA launched an ambitious new 10-year strategy, available on our website, that talked of closing equality gaps, and making a curriculum that is ‘sensitive to global and cultural contexts’. But how to get there? How do we make a curriculum that is reflective of the work and perspectives of people all around the world? How do we ensure that there are no equality gaps?
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Like many, I’ve been reflecting on the recent protests following the killing of George Floyd, and the responses to the #BlackLiveMatter, in particular across Higher Education. These have ranged from the extremely thoughtful and sensitive to the very corporate and hollow. This has forced me to take a long hard look at myself and the organisation that I’m very proud to lead the Open College of the Arts and consider are we doing enough to live up to our values of diversity and inclusion?
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The Visual Exploration unit supports a self-directed approach to exploring and articulating your personal creative voice by extending a process-led approach to how you generate ideas, develop visual and technical skills across a choice of media and technologies, and by establishing new ways of working by undertaking self-initiated projects and reflecting on the creative processes of other practitioners.
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For some it may seem counter-intuitive to stop and take stock of your own work. The pressure of looming deadlines often means that you want to keep moving forward and keep producing work. However, taking time out to pause and reflect on your work can pay great dividends and allow for much stronger work to be developed as a result.
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We are delighted to announce a special guest lecture by renowned international curator Susan Bright. The format is a zoom webinar-style meeting. You can watch, listen and ask questions using the chat box. Please register in advance to help us plan numbers.
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