poppy comes to Y4

Neither Luke or Anna was able to help out at school last Wednesday so Poppy, one of my first years, stepped in the help at the last minute. I was very grateful for her help with the remaining groups who needed to shoot. She has also offered to research printing and mounting costs for the presentation which I hope to get together through June.

photography with y4

Luke went into school and did the presentation with Year 4 whilst I was in Florida. I am very excited about the way this project seems to be providing all sorts of unforeseen opportunities for individuals to step up and engage with teaching and learning digital photography on so many different levels. This week we were busy taking the first groups of children out of class to shoot their images. I had expected our facilitator role to become more complicated as we worked backwards through KS2, but I was really impressed with the way the children engaged with the project. Luke had obviously briefed them well. He is busy with his own work next week as assessments are looming. One of my 3rd Year undergraduates, Anna, is hoping to take a few hours out of her busy runup to her final show to help me out with the second Y4 shoots.

I need to talk to Mr C, the headmaster, about how and when we are going to show the final image wall but he has gone away for a 2 week visit to Africa. The summer fayre at the school could have been a well-timed occasion to unveil the work, but I just realised that is the weekend I am visiting the Venice Bienale. I hope to use most of June to complete the presentation. I am not sure whether to 'go it alone', possibly with some help from Anna, or whether to involve the children, and if so, on what level they can actually get involved. I have had some quotes for printing and mounting A0 panels of 16 prints and the price is very expensive as I need 8 or 9 panels. So I am trying to figure out some diy possibilities that involve using the printing facilities at the University. The only thing that seems certain is that the presentation should be hardwearing as I think it will be displayed at various locations over the next year or two.

Florida

We made this video at Epcot on a ride. We spent 6 days in Disney World:

Then  we went to New Smyrna Beach - my favourite part of the holiday...

         more photos to follow....

femadlib K

Alex Brew contacted me through the Exposures archive project at Goldsmiths. She is a member of a group of women artists who describe themselves as 'feminist activists'. Check out the links to some fabulous artists' work on their blog http://femadlibkolektiv.blogspot.com/ I recently screened two of my mid-90s films for their fundraising cafe and party. Unfortunately I couldn't get up to London for either of these events, but hope they were successful.

so much to blog about...

I don't know where to start...

First - the job - all fine with my 0.5 on DFSA but everything around me is changing. KR has become a Professor, LW has had her full time post reduced to 0.6 and SL, the course leader, has to have a second interview for his own job. The animation team have gone on management courses! So goodness knows where or when we will have some clue about how the course will shape up in the future.

Secondly - the school project. I will be finishing printing with Y5 tomorrow. They have made some lovely images that don't seem to duplicate those made by Y6 too much. There will be plenty of variety in the outcome. I have put together some A0 grids of 16 images and I am getting quotes to print and mount eight of these to construct the final image wall. Work with Y4 begins after Easter, but I may have to ask Luke to deliver the introductory presentation as I will be in Florida...

Which brings me on to the final bloggable item. Holiday. Yippee! We just booked a cheap fly/drive to Orlando. Disney World here we come. I swore I wouldn't go again after visiting the Paris one a couple of years ago. I hate the artificial, consumer driven, tackiness of the whole experience. But the kids (and Mark?) love it. I look forward to chilling by the beach for the second week.

And one more thing to add... Google found our old friend Alexis S for us! She owns a cafe that sounds incredibly cool, hip and trendy in Miami http://www.lunastarcafe.com/ Hope we get to visit or meet up with her.

will I still have a job?

I had an email yesterday to say that Digital Film and Screen Arts will be grouped with Animation under one Course Leader who will be appointed on Monday 16th March and that we will all have meetings to discuss the new course structure. Today I found out my meeting will be the following day. It therefore seems likely that there must already be a decision about who will be doing what and it seems quite possible that some jobs will go. I have heard unofficially that I am 'at risk' but no one has officially notified me in those terms yet. We are left to 'read between the lines.'  This is very upsetting and stressful for everyone and the UCA hierarchy do not seem to show much concern for the academic workforce by letting the speculation continue for more than a week after this announcement.

On a more positive note, I can't imagine why I would have been awarded a Teaching Fellowship if the plan was to get rid of me. Also I am multi skilled and therefore adaptable. Perhaps I could be redeployed to another course if the worse does come to the worse. It would be such a shame because DFSA is a damn good course and I would be so sad to see it close or leave it - but I must keep my job somehow. I moved here to do it and can't imagine life here without being part of the university.

working with Y5

Last week we presented to Y5 using the same Powerpoint that we used for Y6 although I took out a few of the more complex slides about resolution. The children were very enthusiastic - hands waving to make comments about small details, various interpretations of the images, even comments about the sequencing of the images within the presentation. It was very interesting hear what they had to say and sometimes they were quite a long way off what I was trying to get them to consider but approaching the project with a refreshing naivety (if that's the right way to describe it?). I wish I could have recorded the session to remember the exact details. I know there were comments about the price ticket on the bucket, some marks on some stones that may be fossils, a pattern or shape that had repeated through a number of images and so on. When they split into groups to brainstorm image ideas, it was obvious that some children were better at teamwork than others.

In the main, they listened to the info about resolution, but I'm not sure how much they understood. They were eager to pass around the cameras and hopefully this was a useful introduction for the first groups who have taken their images today.

Many of the Y5 children seem a lot more 'snap happy' than those in Y6. One child took over 60 images despite repeated advice to slow down and consider what to shoot with care. Other children obsessed about the number they were allowed to shoot and this seemed to restrict creativity so it was quite difficult to find a balance. The instructions not to shoot people also seemed lost to some who were keen to take pictures of their friends and teachers. I think there will be a lot more glimpses of uniform and people that were almost completely absent from the Y6 work - so this will hopefully provide a new level of interest to the image wall.

One girl took off her shoes and photographed the hole in her sock. We found the picture was out of focus so got her out of class to take it again as we thought it was so original and such a strong image. Now we have to hope she can be encouraged to print it...