Tutor Report for Assignment 2 – Contextual Studies

I have attached below my tutor report and annotated literature review for Assignment 2 – Contextual Studies. I have also reflected on what my tutor has written in the report and the annotated literature review so I can get a better grasp on some of the concepts we talked about in our telephone call.

Tutor Report for Assignment 2 – Contextual Studies

Assignment 2 – Contextual Studies – Annotated Literature Review

I had a very informative telephone call with my tutor, in which we talked about the literature review and any criticisms my tutor had concerning it. We also looked ahead to my planning the extended essay and writing it. One aspect of the literature review I had confused was mixing up the temporal with the spatial. While these are related, I mistook the everyday (related to time) for the local (related to space). I now understand that the everyday/past/present/future is related to time and local/global is related to space. However, time also impacts on place, with features of the place changing over time.

When looking forwards to the extended essay, my tutor encouraged me to start writing things down in a form of free writing. By writing points out, printing them out, cutting and rearranging them, I could better visualise how my extended essay would come together than just by listing points. I listened to my tutor’s advice but instead of free writing and cutting and rearranging the points I made a mind-map:

The mind map made me think differently about photography and regeneration/change’s relationship to it and I could see connections I probably wouldn’t have been able to in a list. One of these connections was that regeneration ‘aims to be objectively improving a place but can be subjectively displacing its character’ (located at the bottom right of the mind map). It does this through its glossy facade with the likes of hoarding and advertisements but underneath the truth is less attractive. It also struck me that images like photographs and computer-generated plans are used a lot in the ‘image’ of regeneration. From this I began to see a plan for my essay where art and regeneration are intertwined and whether art can penetrate the glossy facade of regeneration when it is linked to its image.

As well as thinking about acquiring ideas for the essay differently we discussed the hypothesis for the extended essay. One of the quotes from Minton’s Ground Control (2012) could almost be the topic of the essay if that is the point I am trying to make. My tutor suggested incorporating politics, social and housing, into the body of the text. The structure of the essay should consist of the introduction, the body, where I could make three or so points concerning various aspects of my subject.

One other thing we talked about was the composite aspect of my images. In particular we discussed the people – they make it look like there is a community – my tutor mentioned this and others have since. Ties in with Deptford having strong, unique character.

Going back to the tutor report, my tutor felt I would need to include more visual examples to illustrate my points and so referenced some more artists for me to investigate. I have written posts on some of these artists including Fatimah Tuggar, Tara Darby in The Town of Tomorrow – 50 Years of Thamesmead (2019) book and Chris Dorley-Brown’s Continuum (2014) series specifically. I still think some of these artists will remain relevant in the extended essay, although the topic of the essay has changed somewhat as I will outline in my plan.

References:

Chadwick, P and Weaver, B. (2019) The Town of Tomorrow – 50 Years of Thamesmead. London: Here Press.

Coeval Magazine. (2017) Fatimah Tuggar. At: https://www.coeval-magazine.com/coeval/fatimah-tuggar (Accessed 08/01/2020).

Dorley-Brown, C. (2014) Continuum. New York: FusionLab, Inc. At: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/continuum/id950929159 (Accessed 14/04/2020).

Minton, A. Ground Control. (2nd ed.) London: Penguin Books Ltd.