An Artefact of the morning Skype session!!

In today’s morning group skype session we mostly talked about Artefacts in reference to Module three and AOL’s in reference to Module one. We had a long session and I think as we get further into the term the sessions might be a little longer, so it maybe a good idea to calculate for a 1.5 hrs rather than an hour. Each of the people attending are going to write a little about the conversations see links to thier blogs below.

I wanted to post a little on Artefacts and I will be posting on AOL’s later in the week.

We are assuming everything is an ‘artefact’ of an experience – this is not theoretically sound but a quick way to try to get the word to mean something more than ‘Artefact means the thing I don’t know what to do about in the last module’ and change to Artefact in the more general use of the word ‘Artefact means an object made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest. – the culture being your work culture’

The reflective paper is an ‘Artefact’ from the University culture, the other thing is an XXXX from your work culture. They are both doing the same thing explaining about your research.

Today people talked about their research and I thought up lots of Artefacts for instance:

An installation: Two spaces that you walk through one that has all the added ‘benefits’ and down-sides of dancing in a dance school, for instance images of friends, safe familiar place, tension (whatever came up as benefits/down-sides themes). When you get across this room you are presented with a space that shows where this has taken some people in terms of the themes that emerged.

The other space only focused on the professional goal – the only things in this room would be to do with getting a good technique/themes. When you get across the space you are presented with where this got other people in terms of the themes that emerged.

A choreographic process/method: together with students looking at my feelings across the module. First I felt quite blinded. Then things felt quite big, then they got clearer. I take ‘Blinded’, ‘Big’, ‘Clearer’ my process/my research process and look at how this can be expressed using the processes of American Modern dancers. I ask my students to take one of these themes (blinded, big or clearer) and use one of the modern dancers they have learnt about and choreograph something. Or we choreograph something together with them creating and me facilitating their process. My research was about whether by sharing processes of past dancers this would help my students, so my artefact use processes seeing if the processes of the past dancers can be used to help express something – my process. The choreographic problems and problem solving the choreography manifests is as much a comment as me writing the same comments and solutions.

A children’s book  – as with children’s books I will not use words but pictures to express my adult journey through the research. I am using the form of a children’s book because my research is about children but the information is about the research itself so it still has the depth I had to go into (I am not trying to simplify my work for a 4 year old audience) I am drawing the attributes and techniques used in children’s books because my research is about how I make the complicated world of dance meaningful to children so my artefact makes the complicated world of my research meaningful using a tool used to reach children meaningfully (children’s books). As with children’s books there might be a page the reader can feel or a scarf that pulls out of the book….. There might be drawing, little letter to pull out of envelopes and photographs to tell the story of my research process.

In making your artefact you should find deeper meaning to your research because just as you writing it for the University Artefact you become clearer about what it is so too as you make your work place artefact you find new ways to look at the research and become clearer about it.

That is not to say you do the research again – all three (paper, oral presentation and artefact) are about the research you have done. It is done now/ it is over – now you are telling us about it.

I wrote a paper with Paula on this I attach it. This programme grew out of the BAPP programme so the paper is about first introducing the Artefact as a requirement for the BA Professional Practice. You might find it useful to read some of the thinking behind the notion of the Artefact.

Have a look at what other people thought:

http://amandatooms-peel.blogspot.co.uk

http://mariaranden.blogspot.no

http://www.marymapp.blogspot.co.uk

http://aprilannbrown.wordpress.com

http://www.ambermapp.blogspot.co.uk

http://sarahsulemanji.blogspot.co.uk

Article:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/HESWBL-09-2012-0036

What do you think?

Adesola