Overall Comments
Dear Jennifer
Thank you for sending me your fifth assignment.
Overall, there are some technical issues which you have encountered with this final assignment, although you have been researching how to overcome them. This is regarding an issue with audio and visual content marrying up on the Quicktime movie which you are still investigating, but have managed to successful achieve it on the PowerPoint and this is what I have listened to.
The presentation itself is rather wide ranging in its nature (I did advise you of this in the last feedback) and I do not feel you have answered all of the assignment brief, so there may be some more work to do on this or, subject to deadlines, it is something you can develop further in your sixth and final assignment. This brief asks you to include: ‘relevance to your own practice’ and ‘your future plans and direction and possible projects relating to this area of study. This ideally should have been incorporated into this presentation. You appear to have tried to incorporate too much information (over 100 years’ of history!) and even going back to cave paintings. This is far too much information, but instead needed to focus on some key portrait photographers (which you have done a little). You had the opportunity to develop this section and to have annotated the photographers’ work in more depth, using critical analysis skills and perhaps also bringing in some quotations from relevant key speakers or theorists, rather than just briefly touching on their work.
Towards the end of the presentation, you have gone off on a tangent by starting to look at technology within photography which is a separate subject area in itself. The reference to ‘Whats App’ is not even directly related to photography, whereas something like Instagram is and is also used by fashion photographer Nick Knight which would have been more relevant. I would recommend that most of this final section is edited out and re-worked with the missing information about your own work, mentioned above, or developed further in Assignment 6 subject to time constraints.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
You appear to have spent a long time transcribing your talk and then reading off your written work as you move through each slide. I would recommend for future reference when using PowerPoint that you type your notes onto the PowerPoint in the Notes section (which is underneath the slide that the audience sees). This way you print off your whole PowerPoint (Print > Settings > Slides > Print Layout > Notes Pages) so it will print out the PowerPoint slides with the visuals you have used and your notes underneath. You have done this, so I am unsure why I have also been sent two other separate documents including pages with just the images on and also a separate script (with tables, arrows etc) which you have clearly spent a lot of time on. This has cost you valuable hours / days of time which is unnecessary.
As for giving a presentation, I would highly recommend that you type bullet points of some key words into each slide which should prompt you into talking about your subject area in order that you do not need to read off the whole text.
Of course you can use your notes to help and support you in remembering all that you have researched, but just reading every word off your script can lose the air of energy and spontaneity about your subject which can make all the difference to your audience when they are listening to you. If you just read off your script which lacks any sort of excitement or enthusiasm, then the audience will switch off.
All images used in your PowerPoint should be of high quality which most appear to be, although one of the images on Slide 5 looked a little stretched. Images should ideally appear immediately on the slide, rather than the viewer staring at a blank slide for many seconds or a minute before an image appears. Having an image appear immediately will give something of interest for the viewer to see whilst they listen to you.
All images should also be Harvard Referenced, stating the name of the image, the photographer, the date it was taken and the source (book / website). If you cannot find the name of the photographer, you can use ‘Unknown Photographer’ to show that you have attempted to research this, but it should always be possible to list the website you have obtained the on-line image and the date you accessed the website at the very least. This will prevent any issues surrounding copyright and plagiarism.
You have included another document detailing the bibliography. Again, this really should be written in Harvard Referenced format, rather than compartmentalizing it all on a table which you have spent a long time typing up in this format. Just a final slide on the PowerPoint with the Bibliography Harvard Referenced would have sufficed in this instance, separating sections into books, E-books, websites, exhibitions etc. and saved you a massive amount of time.
Example of how it should be written is here:
Books
Clarke, M. (2007) Verbalising the Visual : Translating Art and Design into Words. Lausanne; Worthing: AVA Academia
Websites
National Media Museum, Bradford (no date) [Web site]. Available at: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org (Accessed: 07 April 2016).
Impressions Gallery (no date) [Web site]. Available at: http://www.impressions-gallery.com (Accessed: 07 April 2016).
Exhibitions
The National Media Museum, Bradford. Insight Research Centre [Visited 27 January 2016]
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You have stated in your letter that you are on with updating your Blog so I will look at this again when I received Assignment 6.
Research
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
You have clearly done a lot of research into your PowerPoint presentation, but be careful of just going over factual evidence. Try to incorporate some discussion or debate into your work. Find some photographers who are a little controversial in nature and don’t be afraid to ask some difficult questions of their work, even if you do not know the answers!
Learning Log
Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis
You have attended some lovely exhibitions and have written some interesting and reflective thoughts on what you have seen so this is now a step in the right direction. I particularly liked reading about Pauline Rook and the reference you made to James Ravilious. Always try to then incorporate what you have researched and learnt from the visit into how it can inform your own work (if at all). A compare and contrast of the two photographers would also have been an interesting project.
Suggested reading/viewing
Context
To develop your writing and critical analysis skills, I can recommend the book:
Barnet, S. (2010), A Short Guide to Writing About Art, London: Pearson
You may have some books by Liz Wells who I can also recommend as she writes in an interesting manner about many different genres of photography and particularly regarding personal photographs which would inform the research into your PowerPoint.
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
I would recommend that you continue to build on your current research surrounding Portrait Photography.
Tutor name
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Katrina Whitehead
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Date
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29.01.17
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Next assignment due
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23.03.17 (final deadline submitted by OCA Head Office)
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