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creativity Blog Posts- Page 20 of 26 - The Open College of the Arts

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The Writer’s Voice: Part 2 – Fiction thumb

The Writer’s Voice: Part 2 – Fiction

In fiction, ‘voice’ refers to the person who’s speaking, more commonly called ‘the narrator’ (it’s unusual to refer to the ‘narrator’ in poetry). The narrator may be a character in the story (as in first person narratives) or they may be someone telling the story but not actually present (as in third person narratives).

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Student work: Scraps of Memory by Catherine Munro thumb

Student work: Scraps of Memory by Catherine Munro

The Creative Arts program encourages interdisciplinary approaches. It’s great to see how students can navigate multiple units to build a coherent creative practice. It can be hard to juggle different parts of a practice based course and one of the key challenges, I think, can be finding how to develop an individual direction. It can be very useful to step back and reflect on what are the ideas and methods that really drive and inspire you. This body of work entitled Scraps of Memory, by HE5 Creative Arts student Catherine Munro feels useful to share with wider OCA.

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The Writer’s Voice: Part 1 – Poetry thumb

The Writer’s Voice: Part 1 – Poetry

What is meant by ‘voice’ in poetry? Personally I don’t think it’s easy to distinguish between ‘voice’ and ‘style’. Both are abstract terms that are concerned with the overall effect of a piece of writing rather than any specific technique, so both are the sum of all the other parts of the writing craft. In both fiction and poetry, ‘voice’ and ‘style’ are created from word choice, tone, use of punctuation and grammar, rhythm, choice of subject matter, choice of point of view, use of imagery, and so on. In poetry, specific poetic techniques also contribute to voice, including line length, line breaks, use of stanzas, rhyme and meter.

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Photography is Simple thumb

Photography is Simple

‘Photography is Simple’ is a notoriously difficult assignment. It’s controversial (especially the older version which gave you the option to submit just one word for your assignment notes). The work coming in has been variable and it’s really tripped some people up, including some of our most confident students. So I decided to give it a run through myself.

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Farewell to OCA’s Peter Haveland thumb

Farewell to OCA’s Peter Haveland

Peter Haveland, a tutor on visual studies and photography courses is retiring from his teaching career and leaving OCA. He’s been working with OCA for the best part of twenty years, so has seen the organisation evolve and grow. To mark Peter’s retirement, and out of my own curiosity, I asked him a few questions to reflect on his time as a tutor. 

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´BIG DRAW´- the first step in a creative journey thumb

´BIG DRAW´- the first step in a creative journey

With BIG DRAW I got to experience different tools, forcing me into learning mode which I really enjoyed. It certainly has been an illuminating experience and I want to suggest that anyone embarking on a course at OCA should do this as a teaser to get started.

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Study event review: Oxford, a student’s account thumb

Study event review: Oxford, a student’s account

Overall, it was an excellent day, where we learned a considerable amount, had some hands-on activity and had the chance to meet some of our fellow local students. I very much hope the group will meet again in the future.

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In conversation with: Drawing degree tutor Simon Manfield thumb

In conversation with: Drawing degree tutor Simon Manfield

The broad and experimental character of the drawing degree is supported of course by the curriculum, and a big part of that is the lovely new drawing degree unit called ‘a personal approach to drawing’ (DR5PAD), so I am delighted to have a chance to have a conversation with one of its authors, Simon Manfield, about his practice.

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Student work: Helen Price thumb

Student work: Helen Price

I enjoyed the way that art history and context was interwoven throughout the course. As each unit was presented, different artists and works were introduced in a way that was relevant to the project at hand. I found this to be a refreshing approach, in contrast to a timeline-based introduction to the history of art.

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How To Find The Creative Spark thumb

How To Find The Creative Spark

Today we are always connected in the virtual world. The world is literally at our fingertips. Information is ubiquitous and even working alone from home, we are really never ever alone. I have forgotten how to sit still and do nothing.

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