Stay inspired

It is the Winter break for students. We are busy marking and doing the administrative stuff of preparation for the new term. There will be less/no email contact but watch Helen and my blogs for posts for up-coming new term events (and check emails for welcome pack if you are new to the programme.)

Please check your University emails for anything the Uni might be in contact with you about!
Maybe see you at the Module Three presentations

Meanwhile let's keep inspired:-

Please put links to Ted talks or art work or other inspiring or art making/thought provoking things in the comments.

Where am 'I' in this... (writing in First person)

We ask you to writing in First person because you are the filter through which you are experiencing life and making meaning. This is seeing a constructed world in which you are the builder. We need to know who is doing the building – you need to present. This raises questions about what is truth – is it more ‘true if I writing the building was the best thing every built’ or if I write ‘I felt the building was the best construction I had walked into.’ Is the building better because you are out of the sentence? 

We have to ask where we stand on truth, learning, facts – objective truth. Here is montage of videos and questions that together an assemblage for addressing the ethics of where ‘I’ am in what I write…  

Lying is a corporative act so is truth... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_6vDLq64gE&t=197s

Truth – learn from history for the better of the world – there is objective truth...

https://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_lipstadt_behind_the_lies_of_holocaust_denial/up-next?language=en#t-24829

https://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_lipstadt_behind_the_lies_of_holocaust_denial/up-next?language=en#t-24829

and so for me kindness is key 

But what about being kind has the danger of being gullible... (swearing below!!)

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U4Ha9HQvMo

....truth... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Uc-cztsJo&t=115s

(digital) literacy becomes important...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dceyy0cX6J4

‘…gave us access to everything but it also gave everything to us… discriminate between the things that genuinely matter and the' rhetoric 'of life…’ 

Where you are in all this determines what it means... so you need to be present in it when you write about it. That is why we ask you write in first person. 

What do you think?...

Finding your own words to explain a point you are making

Some great examples of researching the feedback I gave 'don't interrupt your sentences with quotes you can put into your own words'. Sophie (BAPP)  then went away and researched this ideas and sent me the follow examples: 

Examples of Paraphrasing rather than direct quotations
EXAMPLE 1
BEFORE:

This follows the emphasis Lo et al place on student variations as they explain

“Crucial is a deep and thorough understanding of the different ways by which students come to acquire the capability targeted”. (2002, p. 4).

AFTER:

This follows the emphasis Mun Ling Lo et al place on student variations. They explain how vital it is to understand how contrasting capabilities require adjustable targets. (Lo et al, 2002, p. 4). 

EXAMPLE 2

BEFORE

Twyla Tharp explains that this type of Tacit knowledge

'doesn't need to be accessed through conscious effort'. (Tharp and Reiter, 2006 p 65.) 

AFTER

Twyla Tharp, author of 'The Creative Habit' (Tharp and Reiter, 2006 p 65.) explores this type of tacit knowledge which she characterises as automatic, non-verbal and sensed rather than articulated. 

Wednesday Dec 4th2019 - Online Skype session with DAN4760 Module three focus: The ways ideas can be communicated.

Sorry we are going to have to cancel tonights Skype 

Wednesday Dec 4^th2019 - Online Skype session with DAN4760 Module three focus  

Topic: The ways ideas can be communicated.

8pm (time in London)

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Sunday Dec 1st - MAPP Monthly Skype discussion group

Sunday Dec 1st - MAPP Monthly Skype discussion group 

8pm (Time in London) 

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the  current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Wednesday Nov 27th2019 - Online session with DAN4510 Module One focus

Wednesday Nov 27^th2019 - Online session with DAN4510 Module One focus

Topic: synthesis of information through reflection.

8PM (time in London)

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Sunday Skype discussion

On Sunday we had a discussion that started with the stimulus of communication - we move to voice. Finding your voice in the different mediums you are using to communicate (like your writing voice). We talked about meaning and voice happening (or emerging) in the 'in-between' moments: the breaks between modules, the writing up of an observation, the moments needed to just digest something.

I suggest that these moments become 'in-between' to us because we are not expecting them to be of value. They are between (important activity, events,...) but what if we shift the value not from the things (activity, events...), but to the process then the between becomes the center of what we value. In-between becomes where we expect things to happen and... further in-between melts into nowness: no need for distinct points of importance but an on-going aliveness and response to the situation of now. (Using Dewey's use of the word 'situation')

What are your thoughts ...?
Please see below for links to people blog posts also...

Making meaning ...

Looking at your practice whatever it identity it as 'making' is involved at some level. It is important to consider your approach to making (like your approach to learning - making understanding). Thinking about choreography or making and the different ways artists approach the making process. This is an interesting imagined  're-enactment' of the creative process of one maker (Diaghilev) by another maker (Alston). 

From Helen's blog on Drafts and other thoughts

A note for some further clarity around the role and purpose of Drafts of work.

Drafts are intended to initiate a feedback dialogue (in person, skype, via email) with your supervisor, they are not usefully used to ask if things are 'right' or sent with an expectation of receiving corrections, by way of a pre-marking opportunity.

Please do receive feedback as an extended discussion of your work. 

Often feedback contains prompts for further reading, suggested texts/practitioners to look at, comments regarding the level of critical thinking/analysis in your writing over overly descriptive personal narrative approaches etc.. Feedback comments are not telling you to 'correct' something and re-submit, but more trying to help you to move your thinking and writing on as we see the process of your work developmentally.

With this in mind, when you have received feedback on a draft of work, and please do consider that we are working our way through draft work from all students across the three MA programmes at this point in the term, please take time to read and consider comments made, come back to your supervisor asking to extend the conversation, arrange a skype is you have further thoughts and questions as a result of the feedback, but please try not to send a 2nd draft asking if the work is now correct, or continuous re-drafts up until the submission date.

We  trust in you as professional people and see our role as supervisors as guiding you, being a critical friend, promting, pushing your thoughts, challenging sometimes in order for you to develop further. We are not testing you getting things 'right' we are interested in your engagement and curiosity about your own work.

Other thoughts 

Do I need to do a new literature review from Module Two to Module Three? 

No, you do not need to re-write the literature review it was there to help you in this next part of the course but it should be likely that doing the inquiry has shed like on different part of the topic which requires you to add to the literature you already have looked at. Or maybe a part of the literature review you did not look at much has now become more important. So use the older review as a starting point and add to it. In your final work you need to include those part of the review that help explain the pints you are making and give context to the scholars you are quoting or ideas you are discussing throughout …. 

Please use the Feedback exchange form. It is so we can start the conversation your draft opens.

Please do not send emails saying, ‘Did you get my email?’ Please just resend the email and contents. At busy times, it means the person being asked ‘Do you get my email’has to find the email they might not have had in the first place – when you could just start from the email you have sent that they now have safely and can reply to.

Adesola - I have said (in the handbook) if you have a quick question please just Skype or call me at anytime. (Helen has times also see Handbook.) I can then answer or call back when I am free.  But please do not use multiple platforms to contact me beyond Skype and email it starts to get really confusing as to where we are in a conversation. 

Sunday Nov 17th2019 MAPP: Monthly Skype discussion group

Sunday Nov 17^th 2019  - MAPP Monthly Skype discussion group 

8pm (Time in London)

Topic: Communicating your ideas.

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

'Ways of doing Art...'

Thinking about Art - connections and relationships across practices

Conférence de Tim Ingold - Art and Anthropolgy for a Living World from École des Arts Déco - Paris on Vimeo.

Monday Nov 11th Online Skype session with DAN4630 Module Two focus: the 'MORE' process

Monday Nov 11^th 2019

Online Skype session with DAN4630 Module Two focus – MORE ETHICS process

8pm (time in London)

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on ethics (procedures and considerations).  This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Keynote by Dr Thomas F. DeFrantz

We are so excited to have Dr. Thomas F. DeFrantz giving the Keynote at our symposium on Friday...

Queering the Somatic: Interrupting the Narrative 

Dr DeFrantz will be speaking from 1-2pm (UK time)

If you would like to hear him please comment below and we will make a Skype group to call you in as we live stream the presentation to you...

Student Voice for the MAPP courses

Please consider being a student leader by being one of the Student Voice Leaders for MAPP. This means consulting with other people on the programme and feedback string points and things that have developed and things that still need development.

https://www.mdxsu.com/studentvoiceleaders

If you become a Student Voice Leader you get some leadership training from the Student Union and of course you can admit to your CV as a responsibility you took on.

Student Voice Meeting where you feedback to the University is the week of February17th 2020 (so if you are Module Three it might not be for you as you might have graduated by February)

Please comment below

Re:Generations - Dance and Digital space...reminder

Try and attend there will workshops, papers and performances:
https://www.onedanceuk.org/event/regenerations-2019/

In my language - Amanda Baggs

I was in a discussion about improvisation this week and this video was shared.

Critical Thinking as creative process

This blog is about Critical Thinking – not being critical (being judgemental) when you are thinking, but thinking critically (being analytical). For me critical thinking is about asking questions about the things we take for granted: asking about the things we see as ‘normal’ t. These are things that because of our culture, or society we take as ‘just being’ (not noticeable). Critical Thinking asks us to notice/take the position that this is a perspective: if we lived at a different time or place or culture these ‘normal’ things would be noticeable (not normal). 

In this lecture Sir Ken Robinson reconsiders 'school'. The perspective that 'education' or 'academia' is something separate from the arts (which are lesser value!) is something even those in the Arts might have picked up through social and cultural contact with the wider community. How have you positioned your own knowledge(s) gained from your artistic practice. What resonates with you from this lecture? What surprises you? is there some thing Sir Ken Robinson talks about that you feel he articulates really well - something you've thought but haven't put words to? 
Please comment below...

Wednesday Oct 16th: Online Skype session with DAN4630 Module Two focus

Wednesday Oct 16^th 2019: Online Skype session with DAN4630 Module Two focus

8pm (time in London)

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topics in the Module or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Re:Generations Conference in Manchester: Dance and Digital Space - one month away!!

Thursday 7^thto Saturday 9^th  at the Lowry Manchester, UK

Conference Re:Generations 

Workshops, discussion & performances.

Come along if you are in North of UK next month. BAPP and MAPP Alumni will be presenting work. Come along and support and exchange ideas. 

Hosted in partnership by One Dance UK, IRIE! dance theatre, Middlesex University, Dance Immersion, Canada and The Lowry, the theme for Re:generations 2019 is dance and the digital space. We will explore the ways digital technologies can be used for artistic innovation and creative practise, unite global communities through online platforms whilst increasing the visibility of diverse work to mainstream audiences.

Across the three days there will be panel discussions, lecture demonstrations, masterclasses, workshops, academic paper presentations, performances, networking events and more!

Get tickets here: 
https://www.onedanceuk.org/programme/dance-of-the-african-diaspora/building-global-networks/regenerations-international-conference/

Skype Sunday Discussion group October 13th

Sunday Oct 13^th2019 : MAPP discussion group 

8pm (time in London)

Topic: theory and frameworks.

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Monday Module One focus AOLs

In this discussion we talked about AOLs. Apart grom the claim of prior learning thatvthey make to the University why have them along side Module One? We talked about how they help us unpack our current practice by looking at the skills and knowledge the experience of our careers has given us. How this influences ‘how’ we practice. So practice is not a job title “I am a dance teacher” or  “I am a singer in the West End” but about how we do these things. We look atvthis in terms of threads that run throught the tjingscwe do (even ones not obviously associated with our profession practice). These threads are where our life learning mamifests. We also spoke sbout the confidence to claim your learning and also the confidence recognising it and linking it to wider feilds gives you. 

Those in the conversations are posting thoughts and links to further pists in the comments below. What fo you feel?... please comment below. 

Queering the Somatic: Interrupting the Narrative - one month away!

Friday Nov 1st & Saturday Nov  2nd  (at Middlesex University, Hendon London UK)

Helen and I are curating the Symposium 'Queering the Somatic: interrupting the narrative.' 

There will be workshops and discussion, some MAPP and BAPP alumni will be presenting work - come along and support them if you are near London (or make a trip to attend). 

Queering the Somatic: Interrupting the Narrative Symposium 1^st and 2^ndNovember 2019. Dance can be seen as a critical way of being in the world. For us dance emphasises the felt over the ‘named’, dispelling binaries and challenging Western constructs of the passive body. Queer theory is a field of critical thinking emerging in the early 1990’s drawing on feminism and queer studies to challenge social constructs and identities. Moving beyond the social constructs of the body both dance and queer theory offer a fluidity for narrating the lived experience; narrations that interrupt dominant stories of identity and how we move through the world.

Queering the somatic offers opportunities to explore, challenge and celebrate the act of dispelling binaries: mind-body, male-female, subject-object. 

The symposium is looking for contributions that might re-imagine, re-educate, re-think, reveal and allow us to re-create a world without the limits of binaries that reflect the somatic experience of Being in the world. 

Queering the Somaticis the third somatic symposium curated by Dr Adesola Akinleye and Helen Kindred, following Wright-ing the Somatic(2016), 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sh_fNd_jys&t=17s

and Narrating the Somatic(2018),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e1md6ejfK0

We hope; ‘Let’s imagine together we have all the money in the world and let’s let go of black and white, gay and straight, theory and practice and that all the gatekeepers have flung the doors open. Let’s focus on the arts, the practice and sharing. Understanding the world for a moment through someone else’s eyes’ (Akinleye, A. 2018)

Learning Domains and MAPP

We have talked about Connectivisum as a principle that this course responds to. Module One Handbook discusses this and it is worth going back to again and again when you are in other Modules (we see the handbooks as working documents you access across the whole course – not manuals for what to do in the moment.) 

Hopefully you have also read Knowing Knowledgeby George Siemans– the recommended reading at the start of the course.  

Here are two (over)views on connectivism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8kqcs2aR9c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyF5k2ab9qI   (2013)

One of the things we value is Learning Autonomy and Connectedness which we feel are key concepts learnt when we carry out the activity of being an artist. (So you already know about these in the arts setting). 

We also value Diversity, Openness (which can be present by their absence in the arts setting!)

We know of things but when do we identify what we know as learning. Each Module you have to ask yourself how to make ‘things happening’ into learning. At one level you have to decide for yourself what the value of learning is to you. We insist that learning is more than just being told exactly about it and doing exactly it. In learning there is something about truth, belief, being gullible, being wrong, and for me most importantly kindness. (Kindnessis a massive idea. For me not a neo-liberal act, but being willing to… be brave and respectful, learning while not contributing to the lack of opportunity for others to do the same). I will write a separate blog on truth and kindness later this term. 

In his book Seimens talks about Learning Domains

In this course, we create the situation for all four of the domains he discusses in this course. But it is the combination of the four that is the Learning Environment of MAPP. The dance, the music, the play, the yoga class are made of a combination of elements and so is the learning environment of MAPP. 

Transmission Learning- The learner is brought into a system through lectures and exposed to ‘facts’.  The Unihub and Module Handbooks do this.

Emergence Learning– involves greater emphasis on the learner’s cognition and reflection. What you do with the UniHub and Handbooks and Blogs, and Skypes and conversations with your Supervisor.

Acquisition Domain– learning is exploratory and inquiry-based. This has to be self-directed (because it is your practice not anyone else’s) but self-directed does not mean alone you need to remain connected through sharing ideas (on blogs, in Skype discussions etc…). You explore this domain through looking at what you have done in the past (and writing AOLs about it), looking at your current practice and how the course and ideas you encounter connect with it, through carrying out a project based inquiry. Sometimes you are considering all three at once (if you are in Module Three for instance).

Accretion Learning– is continuous, the learner forages for knowledge when and where it is needed – Real life and ongoing. This is shared through your blog – which is why your blog is so important to keep contributing to and why commenting on others people’s blogs is so helpful to them. 

Across all this ‘relevance’is crucial to look at critically.  This returns us to thinking about what truth, deception, distraction and fact mean to you/do to you. 

Lastly feedback (to each other on blogs and back and forth with your Supervisor) becomes a conversation - ongoing and not as set of instructions to get an 'A'. Go back to 'The Test'  in my blog on September 16th 2019 for John Green to explain that again...

Looking forward to your comments...

Wednesday Oct 2nd: Online Skype session with DAN4760 Module Three focus

Wednesday Oct 2^nd2019

Online skype session with DAN4760 Module Three focus

Topic: Research terms – what are you doing?

8pm (time in London)

Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each other’s ideas and reflections.

Attend a conference?...November 7th - 9th

We are really excited to be able to offer a few funded places for MAPP/BAPP students to be able to attend the Re:generations conference hosted by One Dance UK in partnership with Mdx in November. The funding covers three days of entry to the conference plus your accommodation. The conference is held at The Lowry, Salford, in the UK. 

Re:generations is a biennial academic and artistic conference which aims to share current practice and research in the field of dance of the African Diaspora (DAD); explore and stimulate further research, documentation and new approaches to education and training in the field; and encourage new perspectives on the future of African Peoples Dance (APD). The conference invites scholars, artists and dance practitioners from the Caribbean, Africa, the United States, Canada and the UK to share their research with other artists, practitioners, dance teachers, students and the general public.

The Re:generations Conference* is the UK’s ONLY international platform dedicated to connecting academic and artistic voices within African influenced dance styles; such as Hip Hop, Jazz, Afro Caribbean, traditional and contemporary African and Caribbean, Afro-Latin, and African American Dance.

This will be a great opportunity to be a part of a vibrant conference, network with other artist-scholar practitioners, and get inspired in your own professional development. The funding requires you to blog each day about the sessions, papers, workshops and performances you attend to share with the rest of the MAPP BAPP community.

To express your interest please comment here. We will then email you directly. We will announce which students have places on October 10th 2019. 

*Re:generations – dance and the digital space

7-9 November 2019
The Lowry, Salford

An international forum exploring how technology drives innovation in dance of the African Diaspora.

Hosted in partnership by One Dance UK, IRIE! dance theatre, Middlesex University, Dance Immersion and The Lowry, the theme for Re:generations 2019 is dance and the digital space. We will explore the ways digital technologies can be used for artistic innovation and creative practise, unite global communities through online platforms whilst increasing the visibility of diverse work to mainstream audiences.

Across the three days there will be panel discussions, lecture demonstrations, masterclasses, workshops, academic paper presentations, performances, networking events and more!

The conference will provide CPD for dance teachers, healthcare practitioners and other dance professionals, in addition to bespoke programming for producers, new media practitioners and executive artistic leaders. A key event will be the launch of the report for One Dance UK’s ‘Dance of the African Diaspora Mapping Research’; presenting the current state and needs of the DAD workforce with a scope for future growth and development.

Monday Sept 30th Skype discussion with Module One focus

Monday Sept 30th Skype discussion with Module One focus

Monday September 30th is a Skype Discussion 
8pm (time in London)
(Module One focus)
Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each others ideas and reflections.

Sunday discussion group Sunday 29th Sept.

Sunday September 29th is a Skype Discussion 
8pm (time in London)
(Knowing and Learning)
Please comment below if you are going attend, please also include your thoughts on the topic or current research /reflection you are doing. This is so people can prepare before the conversation by look at and researching each others ideas and reflections.

Feedback - not alone

Throughout the course we see you as 'In conversation...' with us, with each other and with the handbooks. So how does feedback fit in with this?

How do we stand with feedback - 
Firstly, feedback is not about telling you how to get an 'A' it is about helping you develop your ideas and work from the place it is when you receive the feedback. So it is not about correcting the work in terms of telling what to do but it is about developing your work. This means that where ever your work is we will always support you in developing it further. Of course as Supervisors we will let you know if you are working at a level that will not pass. We will not be letting you march of the edge of a cliff!! but the Supervisors role is about working with you to go further so feedback will not likely ever be 'Yes, this is right.'!!

Secondly, so feedback is a conversation and on-going process which is why have a 'Feedback response sheet'.  This is so that we can document the conversation in brief. It is also so that you can direct your own feedback.
The feedback response sheet is sent with any drafts you send for feedback - you should use the sheet to ask questions that direct feedback such as
'I have used quotes to give examples of XXX but I wonder if too much of the essay is in the voice of others because of it.'
or practical questions
'I was not sure how to quote an interviewee I have used "" instead of '' for quotes from interviewee and put them I the bibliography but their interviews are not published so should they be in the bibliography?'

The Feedback response form should also be used after a Skype Supervisor tutorial (one-to-one) summarise the discussion and inform a blog about the tutorial.

The Feedback Response Form is therefore a document of learning, discussion and conversation for you to refer to as you study.  It supports the idea you are not alone in your study (you are in conversation) but not being alone does not mean you are just waiting to be told what to do.

A note: emailing your tutor should not be your first response to not understanding something!! First go back to the Handbook that is what they are for to explain the course, ideas and direct, then read some blogs of people who have done the Module you are on. Then have some time to think.

One More...

We will do a make-up skype on Friday 20th at 5pm. This is for those who missed the Welcome skypes or want to hear it again.

Please comment below if you are attending and make sure you have sent a skype request to us. 

John Green - The Test - capacity to make connections.

Welcome to the start of MAPP  - Week 1 of this term
Please read and watch and comment below so we can start a conversation...

This is a section of a video lecture. It is quite light hearted but what John Green's point is that learning - that is worthwhile is a part of living (and living with integrality). Education is about application not being told what to do...It is about the capacity to make connections and critically imagine, divergent thinking...

Then think about what your learning is - what does it mean to have learnt about life through being an artist or being in the Arts. What value do you put on creative skills to imagine, wonder, working-out the capacity to make connections . These are skills we ask you to use as core to what learning means - Art's Critical value.

In this video Cindy Foley references Sir Ken Robinson's lecture* (video).
Cindy identifies key habits that artists employ, that are also key to our course.
Comfort with Ambiguity
Idea Generation
Transdisciplinary Research



*https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/up-next?language=en

After Welcome Skypes

People have made some great reflective posts after the Skypes - please visit each other's blogs and leave comment.

Here is Simons:

https://simon-mapp.blogspot.com/2019/09/induction-reflection.html#comment-form

Please visit each others blogs - addresses are on UniHub.

September Induction - Up date

We are on Summer break. We have our start back inductions on
Friday September 13th @ 5pm
Saturday September 14th @ 2pm

Comment below to indicate which Skype you will join.

If you are new to the programme: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SENT A SKYPE REQUEST TO US THAT MAKES IT CLEAR WHO YOU ARE AND THAT YOUR COMMENT BELOW MAKES IT CLEAR WHO YOU ARE - THEN WE CAN MATCH COMMENT WITH SKYPE REQUEST!! 

Module Three presentations May 9th & 10th

People in Module three are presenting next week May 9th & 10th
If you are in London please come along and see what they have been doing. This also helps you see where you are heading if you are in Module One or Module Two now. Details are on UniHub about which room and times.

Looking forward to seeing you.
Adesola

Sunday discussion group - communicating ideas

This Sunday April 7th we have our (around the) First Sunday of the month Skype discussion group. Any module  is welcome. these discussion group are an important opportunity to talk and listen about the ideas you are working with. 

We will  be discussing communicating ideas in different modes.

These will be at:

8pm  (time in London)

Comment below to indicate which one you will attend and share relevant thinking/doing you have been mulling, reflecting on particularly in terms of communicating ideas.

Artifacts and 3D ideas

During my PhD (Akinleye 2012) I was thinking about how there was more than one way to experience, communicate, and witness an idea. I developed the proposition of 3D ideas: communication of an idea that uses more than one 'language'. I proposed the notion of 3D ideas as a way to describe the multi-layered nature of communication for acknowledging  embodied experience. 

“ideas are statements not of what is or what has been but of acts to be performed” – J. Dewey

This picture illustrates the ideas.

small language vessels that carry ideas from the inner, isolation of the immediate empiricism of embodiment, to a communicative expression – extract from Akinleye thesis

This is the notion that an idea generated by the nucleus of embodied experience has aspects of it that are well communicated in words, but also has aspects of it that are well communicated physically as well as experientially and representationally. All of these aspects do not replace each other but rather seem to add layers of depth to the communication of the idea and so also to the understanding of the kernel of the idea that was generated through the embodied experience. In this course we ask you to engage with this multi-communication in DAN4760 (Module Three) when you present your work in the form of an essay (University artifact) and Professional artifact (which is whatever is an appropriate form for communicating your ideas in terms of your practice) and a viva when you talk about your experience 

Online session with Module Three focus - Telling stories in qualitative research

On Thursday April 4th we have a MAPP on-line session with Module Three focus (but anyone is welcome). We will be thinking about telling stories in qualitative research.

6pm (time in London)

Comment below if you are attending.

Skype Session with DAN4760 focus - reflections on MORE form March 20th

Wednesday March 20th 
This Skype session is with a DAN4760  (Module Three) focus but will be very useful for 4630  (Module Two) to join also.

The session should help you with filling out and responding to the MORE process.

6pm (time in London)
Please comment below to attend.

Ethics with this steps we take...

Thinking about ethical questions leads to different ways to better understand your practice. Exploring these ethical considerations leads to ‘big’ questions within your practice – such as questions about gender, rights, cultures. 

Here is a talk where Trevor Copp and Jeff Fox talk about their practice. Questioning their practice and their experiences led them to questions about gender and identity.   

Your art form tells the story (or the text) of the principles of the society from which it has developed. Concepts for things such as gender, power, age, relationship with community emerge in the practices of any group of people.

Watch this ted talk by Trevor Copp & Jeff Fox that talks about the assumed principles behind their dance form. The point of watching this video is to recognise that our practices reflects the cultural values of a society at a particular time and place it stems from. 

Think of questions you can ask when you watch something from the field of your practice that will help you be more aware of the nuances of the culture and history with in your practice.  You may not be sensitive to thinking about these questions because you come from the same perspective as the mainstream expectations of your art form. You assume what things mean. As you engage with the ideas of ethical questions you can see that what we assume about other people has more to do with us than it does with them! This is significant for planning your inquiry (in DAN4630 Module Two) and analysing your data (in DAN4760 Module Three). In some ways, you need to be able to observe yourself noticing the situations the inquiry creates. 
What 'big' questions are you coming across? 
Please comment or post addresses to post where you discuss this...

https://www.ted.com/talks/trevor_copp_jeff_fox_ballroom_dance_that_breaks_gender_roles?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Online session with a Module One and Two focus - reflection and ethical considerations

On Tuesday March 12th we have a MAPP on-line session with Module One & Two focus (but anyone is welcome). We will be looking at reflection and ethical considerations. 

6pm (time in London)

Comment below if you are attending.

Sunday March 3rd: Theories and Frameworks (theoretical framework)

Today morning Skype discussion we talked about Theory and Framework. It was an interesting discussion which (at the end of the hour) we wanted to move onto the blogs for further discussion. Jesse posed the question what is the relationship between Theories and Frameworkssee his blog for the full question https://jessemapp.blogspot.com

Below those in the conversation are putting links to posts they have written in response. Please join in…

My thoughts on this are: 

standing under the dome of a massive cathedral (that is the framework). 








The individual gold leaf that line the dome are the theories that line and make visible form to the dome. 








The gold leaf reflects light back at me so it is difficult/ impossible to see beyond the dome of the framework unless you scratch at the gold leaf of the theories. (It is difficult to do what this picture shows see from outside the framework)

We mostly explore the vast space within the domes we create for ourselves.

Online session with Module Two focus - questions as inquiry

On Thursday March 7th we have a MAPP on-line session with Module Two focus and MORE overview (but anyone is welcome). We will be thinking about questions as inquiry structures.

6pm (time in London)

Comment below if you are attending.

Sunday discussion - theories and frameworks

This Sunday March 3rd, we have our (around the) First Sunday of the month Skype discussion group. Any module  is welcome. these discussion group are an important opportunity to talk and listen about the ideas you are working with. 

We will  be discussing the use and place for theories and frameworks in critical thinking and doing.

These will be at:

9am (time in London)

or

8pm  (time in London)

Comment below to indicate which one you will attend and share relevant thinking/doing you have been mulling, reflecting on particularly in terms of theories and frameworks.

Frameworks and emergence

I am re-posting this article

https://adesolamapp.blogspot.com/2018/10/being-part-of-learning-network-mapp.html

Please read it again before you continue below

When I published it last term Helen commented: 

" I find interesting how theories of connectivism manifest through movement in the practice of improvisation. Improvisation relies of a trust in individuals, in self and others, with a shared understanding of the co-creation of the space, the dance, through the networks that underpin the practice and the patterns that emerge as we interact. As we offer and respond through improvised movement encounters we share, I feel, elements both of Downes and Siemens theories here. Look forward to talking more on this ..."

As you think about Connectivism as a way of engaging with the course, also think about what it says about larger connections with the world, with your practice. Helen has thought about this in terms of her practice of improvisation. 

Often people describe improvisation as 'just doing something' with no framework. For me, through Connectivisum I can consider nothing is without an emergence of a framework (even if it is momentary and then changes). Sometimes engagement is through witnessing the framework, letting it emerge and not starting by confirming it before you agree to start. This could the difference between improvisation and codified techniques.

For me Connectivism and this course are about how you move within to understand the framework, how you witness the space. For me the arts are about how we witness the space. It is not about confirming a framework and then shoehorning everything into what you think it is. This is because a framework is only as useful as your understanding of it and as your understanding grows the framework changes. 

Please comment below... what do you feel...?

Online session with a Module Three focus

On Friday February 22nd we have a MAPP on-line session with Module Three focus (but anyone is welcome). We will be looking at analysis and synthesis.

7pm (time in London)

Comment below if you are attending