From Edexcel
The Personal Study is now an explicit piece of work with its own set of marks worth 12%. Here is how Edexcel describe it:
'The personal study will consist of a critical and analytical written piece of a minimum 3000 words continuous prose, making links to the student’s own practical investigations, supported by contextual research. The personal study comprises 12% of the final qualification and is marked out of 18. Through the personal study, students will demonstrate understanding of relevant social, cultural or historical contexts. Students will also express personal interpretations or conclusions, and use technical and specialist vocabulary.'
The personal study can take any form but must:
Students will need to consider:
'The personal study will consist of a critical and analytical written piece of a minimum 3000 words continuous prose, making links to the student’s own practical investigations, supported by contextual research. The personal study comprises 12% of the final qualification and is marked out of 18. Through the personal study, students will demonstrate understanding of relevant social, cultural or historical contexts. Students will also express personal interpretations or conclusions, and use technical and specialist vocabulary.'
The personal study can take any form but must:
- be presented as a separate piece in writing
- be a minimum 3000 words on the chosen subject
- be written in continuous prose
- be in a presentable format for assessment
- include a full bibliography, citing all references.
Students will need to consider:
- critical and analytical content
- expression of personal interpretations and conclusions
- contextual research and understanding
- links between research, analysis and own investigations
- use of specialist terminology and vocabulary
- clarity of expression and language
- appropriate structure and presentation.
Curatorship Task
Your Leaflet Task is the starting point for a more thorough piece of research- The Curatorship Task. You are required to develop the area you chose for your leaflet task into an in depth study of 2,500 - 3,000 words. You must supplement artists who you chose for your leaflet task with other, relevant artists and extensively research them and their work. This study will feed directly into your practical work. For example, if your curatorship tasks discusses how artists use colour and mark making to create mood and atmosphere within landscape painting then we would expect you to create similar work for your practical portfolio.
Getting Started
You may find an excellent online course, or an academic essay, with a thorough bibliography to begin your research. NB. You may not plagiarise existing material! Only consult the best bibliographies to begin compiling your own first draft reading list.
Read three or four essential texts on the subject and take notes. Summarise each chapter, article or website in a few sentences: what was the main point? Write down key information in short snippets, pertinent to your question. You need to collect evidence to substantiate your ideas later on; evidence includes:
Tag evidence with complete bibliography as you go along, so you're not hunting for footnotes at the end: author, title, date, publisher, page number, volume and issue (for a magazine); or website address and date accessed (from a reputable internet page)
Jot down any good vocabulary that you come across while reading, listing useful terms or phrases where they might fit- a handy tip when you are at a loss for words.
Read three or four essential texts on the subject and take notes. Summarise each chapter, article or website in a few sentences: what was the main point? Write down key information in short snippets, pertinent to your question. You need to collect evidence to substantiate your ideas later on; evidence includes:
- quotes from artists, critics and key figures;
- artworks;
- exhibitions;
- and historical facts
Tag evidence with complete bibliography as you go along, so you're not hunting for footnotes at the end: author, title, date, publisher, page number, volume and issue (for a magazine); or website address and date accessed (from a reputable internet page)
Jot down any good vocabulary that you come across while reading, listing useful terms or phrases where they might fit- a handy tip when you are at a loss for words.
This might help: Tate- Imagined Exhibition
A recent exhibition at the Tate Liverpool looked to the year 2052 and presented an exhibition of works from the Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections. The exhibition invites audiences into a fictional scenario in which the exhibited artworks will cease to exist and asks visitors to memorise the works to secure their future preservation. An Imagined Museum draws on Ray Bradbury’s 1953 sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451, a tale of a distant future in which works of literature are banned and the only way to save them is to learn them by heart.
For more information on the Tate Liverpool exhibition, click the link below.
For more information on the Tate Liverpool exhibition, click the link below.
Use the Tate online resource where you can create your own exhibition from the institutions' collections.
Create a plan
Draw a chart, timeline or idea map to begin making visual connections between the bits of information you want to include, and start clustering and prioritising your interests in relation to your back up evidence. You should be able to write down, in forty words or fewer, an initial, focused area of investigation.
Introduction (this and everything apart from the conclusion must be written in the third person)
This should be structured like a press release. Include a quote that sets the tone, convey the perspective of the gallery (Eg. The Gargosian is proud to present...), give an overview of themes and content, go into more depth about your chosen artists (why have they been selected?), finally, give a reason why people should visit your exhibition- what is it's importance and relevance to us today?
Look at this example:
Look at this example:
intro.doc | |
File Size: | 36 kb |
File Type: | doc |
Room by room....
Each room must include at least two artists.
1. Begin by giving an overview to the 'room'. For example:
This room introduces the Making Traces wing with two works that investigate and extend the body.
Since the political anxieties of the Cold War, through to the more fragmented global situation of today, one of the challenges facing artists has been to establish a sense of the individual’s position in the world. The act of making work that conveys a physical presence is fraught with urgency. This tension may be embodied in a coiled energy, or emerge from a careful process of accumulation. The immersive power of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals, at the heart of this wing, was achieved by the artist’s sustained layering of veils of paint in complex combinations. Such traces mark the artist’s position in space and time. They are sometimes restricted by the limits of their physical reach, but can also be modified through the artificial extension of the body.
Magda Cordell and Lee Bul each find different ways of investigating the trace of the body. Cordell’s Figure (Woman) 1956–7 opens the body to energetic scrutiny. The network of painterly gestures seems to mimic the spread of blood vessels and tissue. Thirty years later, Lee Bul constructed Untitled (Cravings White) 1988 as a sculpture to be worn during a performance. Instead of plunging inwards, the soft costume grows outwards, extruding organic forms and tentacles that take the body’s delimited reach to new and fantastical extremes.
2. Present a biography for each artist in this room. You can create a series of bullet points or write a short paragraph. Only include information that helps us place the artist in a context and helps us understand the work.
3. Analyse three pieces per artist or six per room if you have more than one artist. Your analysis should use the image as a vehicle to present wider issues about your artist such as
1. Begin by giving an overview to the 'room'. For example:
This room introduces the Making Traces wing with two works that investigate and extend the body.
Since the political anxieties of the Cold War, through to the more fragmented global situation of today, one of the challenges facing artists has been to establish a sense of the individual’s position in the world. The act of making work that conveys a physical presence is fraught with urgency. This tension may be embodied in a coiled energy, or emerge from a careful process of accumulation. The immersive power of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals, at the heart of this wing, was achieved by the artist’s sustained layering of veils of paint in complex combinations. Such traces mark the artist’s position in space and time. They are sometimes restricted by the limits of their physical reach, but can also be modified through the artificial extension of the body.
Magda Cordell and Lee Bul each find different ways of investigating the trace of the body. Cordell’s Figure (Woman) 1956–7 opens the body to energetic scrutiny. The network of painterly gestures seems to mimic the spread of blood vessels and tissue. Thirty years later, Lee Bul constructed Untitled (Cravings White) 1988 as a sculpture to be worn during a performance. Instead of plunging inwards, the soft costume grows outwards, extruding organic forms and tentacles that take the body’s delimited reach to new and fantastical extremes.
2. Present a biography for each artist in this room. You can create a series of bullet points or write a short paragraph. Only include information that helps us place the artist in a context and helps us understand the work.
3. Analyse three pieces per artist or six per room if you have more than one artist. Your analysis should use the image as a vehicle to present wider issues about your artist such as
- social, political or cultural context of the time
- technique and materials used
- influences
- personal life events and how they may have influenced style or content.
Example:
Although this is an abstract painting, the thick vertical lines that dominate its centre can be seen as trees, with thick knotted roots at their base. It was probably this that led Krasner to call the painting Gothic Landscape, several years after completing it. Krasner was married to the artist Jackson Pollock and, during their life together, her work was eclipsed by his rise to fame. Gothic Landscape was made in the years following his death from a car crash in 1956. It belongs to a series of large canvases whose violent and expressive gestural brushstrokes reflected her feelings of grief. Please note, this is a little brief for our purposes however, it is a good example of using an image to elaborate more on the context of the artist. A way to expand on this would be to discuss the title of the work further and why she only named it years after completing it or to look at the work of the Abstract Expressionists and draw connections between their intentions and Krasner's work. |
Lee Krasner, Gothic Landscape 1961
|
Conclusion
THIS MUST BE WRITTEN IN THE FIRST PERSON.
This should summarise what you have discovered and the main similarities and differences between your artists. You can also make connections between the work you have been researching and your practical work, even include some examples.
This should summarise what you have discovered and the main similarities and differences between your artists. You can also make connections between the work you have been researching and your practical work, even include some examples.
Bibliography
You should have kept a record of all of your sources. These need to be listed at the end of the Curatorship Task. If you have quotes you need clearly identify the source.
First hand research is a big plus: for example, your own interview with an artist or curator. Insert the whole transcript in an Appendix. Avoid wiki or other unverifiable texts.
Please use the Oxford referencing system:
How do I do it?
The Footnote/ Bibliography method requires two elements: footnotes throughout your curatorship task, and a bibliography or list of references at the end.
How do I do a footnote? Footnotes (sometimes just called ‘notes’) are what they sound like—a note (or a reference to a source of information) which appears at the foot (bottom) of a page. In a footnote referencing system, you indicate a reference by:
What are 'Bibliographical Details'?
They are information about a source. Such details include the names of the author, the title of the publication, the date of publication, the name of the publisher and the place of publication.
Book
List information in the following order:
M. Henninger, Don't Just Surf: Effective Research Strategies for the Net, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1997, p. 91.
Article / Chapter in a book collection:
List information in the following order:
M. Blaxter, 'Social class and health inequalities', in Equalities and Inequalities in Health, C. Carter & J. Peel (eds), Academic Press, London, 1976, pp. 6-7.
A Website
N Curthoys, ‘Future directions for rhetoric – invention and ethos in public critique’, in Australian Humanities Review. March-April 2001, viewed on 11 April 2001,http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April- 2001/curthoys.html
Films, DVDs, and television and radio programs:
Strictly Ballroom, DVD, 20th Century Fox, Australia, 1992.
First hand research is a big plus: for example, your own interview with an artist or curator. Insert the whole transcript in an Appendix. Avoid wiki or other unverifiable texts.
Please use the Oxford referencing system:
How do I do it?
The Footnote/ Bibliography method requires two elements: footnotes throughout your curatorship task, and a bibliography or list of references at the end.
How do I do a footnote? Footnotes (sometimes just called ‘notes’) are what they sound like—a note (or a reference to a source of information) which appears at the foot (bottom) of a page. In a footnote referencing system, you indicate a reference by:
- putting a small number above the line of type directly following the source material. This number is called a note identifier. It sits slightly above the line of text. It looks like this.1
- putting the same number, followed by a citation of your source, at the bottom of the page. Footnoting should be numerical and chronological: the first reference is 1, the second is 2, and so on. The advantage of footnoting is that the reader can simply cast their eyes down the page to discover the source of a reference which interests them.
What are 'Bibliographical Details'?
They are information about a source. Such details include the names of the author, the title of the publication, the date of publication, the name of the publisher and the place of publication.
Book
List information in the following order:
- author's surname(s) and initial(s)
- title of book (underlined or italicised)
- publisher
- place of publication
- year of publication
- page number(s)
M. Henninger, Don't Just Surf: Effective Research Strategies for the Net, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1997, p. 91.
Article / Chapter in a book collection:
List information in the following order:
- author's surname(s) and initial(s)
- title of article (between single quotation marks)
- title of book (underlined or italicised)
- editor(s) name
- publisher
- place of publication
- year of publication
- page number(s)
M. Blaxter, 'Social class and health inequalities', in Equalities and Inequalities in Health, C. Carter & J. Peel (eds), Academic Press, London, 1976, pp. 6-7.
A Website
- author/editor
- page title
- website title
- name of sponsor of site (if available)
- last date site updated
- date of viewing
- URL
N Curthoys, ‘Future directions for rhetoric – invention and ethos in public critique’, in Australian Humanities Review. March-April 2001, viewed on 11 April 2001,http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April- 2001/curthoys.html
Films, DVDs, and television and radio programs:
- title
- format
- publisher
- place of recording
- date
Strictly Ballroom, DVD, 20th Century Fox, Australia, 1992.
Presentation
We would like you to present your final Curatorship Task in the form of a book. We believe that this is the best way to formally present what is a final outcome.
We use Photobox http://www.photobox.co.uk/ as the school has a 66% discount. Despite the discount we still recommend that you choose the square soft cover (£16.99 before discount). This is more than adequate for the quality of finish we require. You will need to create your own account then share the finished book with us via Mr Holden- [email protected].
We use Photobox http://www.photobox.co.uk/ as the school has a 66% discount. Despite the discount we still recommend that you choose the square soft cover (£16.99 before discount). This is more than adequate for the quality of finish we require. You will need to create your own account then share the finished book with us via Mr Holden- [email protected].