F433: Practical Process

STAGE 1

Your practical photographic piece must link to your Personal Study in some way. Your Personal Study is really the starting point from which you can start exploring your ideas.

As with AS Photography, a good starting point would be to do all of the following:

• Produce a mindmap of your chosen theme. Look up key words in a dictionary and write down the definition.
• Look up the word in a thesaurus and write down all the suggestions

Once you have done this you need to decide on an initial focus for your work.

At this stage you do not have to think of what your final outcome will be, just decide on a focus which interests you and which you can begin to research and develop ideas for.

Once you have decided on the focus for your investigation write a brief statement of what you intend to do.  This should basically take the form of a flow diagram showing how you initially think your work is going to develop.  However, this is not set in stone and you could find that at some point in your work things take on a completely different direction to that which you initially planned.

The important thing is that there must be a logical flow to your investigation where things clearly link together.  A study which just constitutes different random pieces of work will not score highly.

Stage 2

Get on with it!

At this point it’s important to have a clear understanding of how your work is assessed as you need to make sure that your work is detailed and meets all the requirements in order to achieve the best possible result.

Your work is assessed in four areas:

Develop
A01 Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Experiment

AO2 Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes reviewing and refining their ideas as their work develops.

Record

AO3 Record in visual and/or other forms ideas, observations and insights relevant to their intentions, demonstrating an ability to reflect on their work and progress.

Present

AO4 Present a personal, informed and meaningful response demonstrating critical understanding, realising intentions and, where appropriate, making connections between visual, written, oral or other elements.

This is why your blog/sketchbook is so important, because it is a record of the progress and development of your work.

What follows is exam board guidance about what is required for each of the assessment objectives.

Develop

The purpose of this assessment objective is that, as a consequence of following their course of study, candidates should present evidence of their ability to:

• develop their ideas

and that they should do this

• through sustained and focused investigations

In engaging in this activity, they will show how they have been

• informed by contextual and other sources

Throughout this process they should be aware of the need to demonstrate their

• analytical and critical understanding

The candidate must develop independent and personal contextual ideas. These will be achieved through systematic research and enquiry into relevant sources.

Note that the subheading requires sustained and focused investigations so the approach should not be fragmentary or piecemeal as in the case of bolt-on methods of working. The work method should be clear and concentrated. As well as studying appropriate contextual sources, candidates should show relevant understanding and be able to demonstrate what impact such study has on their ideas.

Candidates should be capable of clearly presenting and justifying points of view, giving valid and well-argued reasons.

In AO1 the activity is centred on finding and finding-out. Judgements will be based on how well the candidate is able to demonstrate the way in which critical understanding has played a significant role in the growth and development of their ideas.

The main thrust of AO1 is to investigate and analyse sources.

So what are the sources you can use?

Well that depends on what your personal starting point is, but things it must include are:

• Analysis of existing images
• Analysis of appropriate photographers.  For example if the topic is nature you might analyse the work of photographers who specialize in photographing landscapes or animals.

Don’t just think about photography though!

• You might need to research a topic and draw out the issues or facts from the topic which you want to explore further.

• You might analyse works of art such as paintings or sculptures if this is relevant
• You might visit a particular location to get information.
• You might go to a museum or art gallery or photography exhibition.

Whatever research and investigation you do, this must be detailed on your blog/sketchbook; and you need to reflect on your research. Look at the A2 Coursework Requirements.

You must clearly indicate what are the important aspects which you are going to explore further or use to incorporate in or influence your work.  For example your analysis of the work of a particular photographer might identify a particular technique which you are going to utilize in your own work.

YOU MUST NOT SIMPLY CUT AND PASTE FROM THE INTERNET OR COPY FROM A BOOK.  USE YOUR OWN WORDS!

Experiment

The purpose of this assessment objective is that, as a consequence of following their course of study,

candidates should present evidence of their ability to:

• experiment (purposefully) with

• resources, media, materials, techniques and processes

and that they should show that they are able to:

• select (appropriately) in their use of

• resources, media, materials, techniques and processes

In engaging in this activity, they will

• conduct on-going evaluation (review) of their ideas and work to see if changes are required in order to

• improve (refine) it and develop it further

Candidates will initiate and explore lines of research and enquiry using media and techniques, skilfully handling materials and processes, seeking to produce ideas and forms of a high quality.

Creative activity may proceed at a number of different levels, from at the lower-end producing a pastiche of an existing idea or work; to at the upper-end, developing an entirely fresh and individualised process and/or outcome. It is to this upper-end that all candidates should aspire.

Creative Making is a process, which is usually preceded by a period exploring stimulating sources that are likely to spark innovative ideas. The creative process can often begin with an initial rough drafting of ideas to give them shape and form. This can then lead to a process of development in which the initial visualisations are more clearly defined and the range of possibilities becomes increasingly more focused.

The main thrust of AO2 is to experiment with a wide range of resources, media, materials, techniques and processes by recognising and exploiting emerging possibilities, and to develop skills proficiently by recognising, reviewing and refining potential ideas as work progresses.

It is useful to make explicit each significant part of the creative process. Moderators may be more able to make fair and accurate assessments of creative making where there is full evidence provided of the candidate’s ideational and practical development.

So what this means is that there in your work there is a clear process of experimenting with for example locations, lighting, shutter speed, aperture.

So you might take some trial photographs experimenting with a technique which you identified in your research or experiment with different shutter speeds when photographing one thing to try to achieve a desired effect.

You might also experiment with different materials; with different filters on Photoshop; and different methods of presenting your work.

All your experimentation must be included on your blogsketchbook and you should evaluate this work, reviewing how well the experimentation went, and outlining how it will be used to progress your work to a final outcome.

Record

The purpose of this assessment objective is that, as a consequence of following their course of study, candidates should present evidence of their ability to:

• record in

• visual and other forms

their

• ideas, observations and insights

• relevant to their intentions

In engaging in this activity, they will demonstrate their ability to:

• reflect on their work and progress

In producing evidence of their recording abilities, candidates should pay attention to how they gather, select and organise visual and other forms of information. They should organize this well, communicate it suitably and make sure that it is plainly relevant to their intentions.

Such intentions should be clearly expressed early in the developmental process.

They may well be susceptible to changes of emphasis and/or direction, but such creative shifts should

be attentively documented and transcribed.

Reflective recording requires evidence of reflective learning skills, which involve taking time to think about the progress of one’s work, reflecting on and reviewing what has been learned in order to deepen understanding and indicate directions for the future.

Candidates should look for meaning and purpose in what they are doing through seeking and expressing

balanced viewpoints.

The main thrust of AO3 is to record ideas, observations and insights thoroughly and purposefully, focusing on aspects relevant to intentions, and to demonstrate an ability to reflect on and evaluate their work and progress, showing independent judgement.

So basically this is all about your blog/sketchbook!

You should ensure that all work on your blog/sketchbook is detailed and that you clearly are reflecting on what you have done and how it will be used to influence your production or alternatively why it won’t be used!

You should think about the way you present your work in your sketchbook so that it includes a variety of methods of presentation.

For example you might

• write a biography of a photographer illustrated with examples of their work
• annotate photographs
• take photographs which attempt to follow the style of a photographer and are reviewed alongside the work of the professional

Present

The purpose of this assessment objective is that, as a consequence of following their course of study,

candidates should present evidence of their ability to:

• present responses that are

• personal, informed and meaningful

(both to the candidate and others)

In presenting their responses, they should demonstrate the outcome of their

• critical understanding

and make clear the extent to which, and means by which, they have realised their

• intentions

They should make explicit the

• connections between the different parts of the submission, covering

• written, oral and other elements

This assessment objective emphasises personal response as something done by a person independent of anyone else. The responses should show that they have been informed by the visual, contextual and other information gained through the process of study.

The assessment will reward the outcomes or products of critical understanding as the candidate evaluates their contribution overall.

Candidates must make their intentions clear.

Intentions cover those things the candidate intends to do or bring about, determining to act in a certain way. Candidates have a clearer sense of direction if their intentions are well communicated. They may deviate

from an original idea, but they should document the twists and turns of all important developments.

The learning skills involved in personal presentation include presenting work in a logical order which communicates precisely and effectively to others. The purpose and context of the work should clearly convey the candidate’s intentions.

This assessment objective also requires the candidate to devise a suitable form of presentation suited to the purpose of the work and the commitment of engaging with an audience.

Personal Presentation also refers to making explicit the connections, relationships and/or associations between the different parts of the submission.

The main thrust of this assessment objective is to require candidates to communicate personal responses creatively in the light of their intentions. These will become more imaginative, coherent and independent as they progress through the development of the course. They should make appropriate connections between visual and, where appropriate, written, oral and other elements to enhance meaning in the response. Again these will become more significant and convincing as they progress.

So basically this is about the final outcome of your work!

However notice it’s not just about the piece itself.  It must be clear that this outcome has ‘emerged’ from all the contextual research, experimentation and reflection you have done.

If your final piece just appears as a ‘random’ piece of art then it will not score highly.

It is also important that the method of presentation chosen is appropriate in terms of fulfilling your intentions, and also that you have thought about the audience and how you want them to engage with your work.