Week2: Analysis

I decided this week not to complete bog myself down with trying to find my topic to focus on – I think if I do that, I’ll end up going down multiple rabbit holes and losing my initial train of thought. Throughout this whole degree, I’ve focussed so much on what others think of my projects, feeling like they weren’t creative or experimental enough that I failed to conduct enough research into my chosen topic to really get to grips with the idea and the prospect of what I could learn, rather than just focussing on a fun, innovative final outcome.

I think by analysing my previous modules last week and the projects that came out of them, I realised a lot fo my blogs talk about my inability to go with my gut on choosing projects or briefs. I tend to overthink and not give myself enough time to just run with “what feels right”.

So I think this week I want to focus on research, theory and methodologies that could help me develop these three ideas I’m playing about with.

I was completely absorbed watching Ben’s lecture on his work and theorised making. Ben’s research area for his parafictional work ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE THE REVOLUTION FROM HERE , it was clear that this wasn’t just a film about Khasakstan, it was a film about parafiction, it was a film about documentaries and the exploration of their truths, it was a film about Nanook of the North… it combined everything he’d research and everything he was interested in. He was passionate about this project and he had a burning question to answer – “Can I make a film based on the things that I think parafiction is? Isit possible?How does that film operate?And is it successful?”

Only by pulling research outside of the confines of writing, has he managed to comprehend and answer his questions, He’s MADE something, not only to add weight to his own research but to also encourage further questioning.

This was a huge learning curve for me, by understanding that we’re not trying to find AN ANSWER to our research question in the next 24 weeks… We don’t need to finish this module with a completed answer, with something that just ends, we can carry this work on with us for as long as we wish, it can continue outside of University, we can take this further and further. I needed to understand this, again, I was getting to muddled within the question itself and my area of research. We need to work on something we’re passionate about first and foremost, only then will we find a topic that genuinely lights our fire!

Take Hardings work, his many components building up to create this exhibition focussed around a fictional discovery of a horse, in a very much real landscape, combining both fiction and fact, alongside interview recordings, filmic components, and text walls. Parafiction has one foot in the real, it’s plausible and that’s what makes it so successful. To the point that visitors didn’t question the plausbility or truthfullness of this horse breed. They also didn’t accept it as just pure fact either, but this all helps feed back into the research into Parafiction, and thus continues that continuous chain of research, making, analysing and research…

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I now want to begin and break down the other areas of research we’ve been encouraged to consideer for this project.

For my different ideas, in order for me to make sense of these adn understand which topic has the right direction, I really need to research thoroughly and understand the different areas of research which will help make my decision.

I also want to start making a list of the people to contact within these different subject areas. Within each area, what gaps are there that need addressing? Who could I speak to about this and why would they be able to help – are there ethical considerations to make?

Do I need to start looking into current research around my subject areas? Perhaps look to York Uni round the corner, are there people there that might be able to help me?

For our research in these initial stages to be successful, it needs to be thorough and clear, I need to keep chipping away at the research to develop the “research question” which sounds backwards but ony by analysing and learning, will I find the gap in these areas that need to be addressed.

Do I want this to be a community based project? Do I want to speak to businesses, locals or people from around the globe?

How passionate should I be about this subject – since writing these thoughts down here, I’ve since realised that perhaps the children’s book isn’t necessarily a passion of mine, it’s more of a thought I had over the past year but I have no idea what I want to create or even what I want to get out of it. I think I should put that one on the back burner for now, there’s not enough meat on the bones to really get to grips with the direction I want it to go in.

At least with my other two ideas, I can sit down and begin to really analyse each direction and the research methods I can take for each project…