Learning Outcomes

1. Development of your Project Proposal to plan a challenging and self-directed programme of study.

My project began as research in to how our identities might be linked to our everyday movements and how those movements might be interpreted as type of portrait.

Initially I drew from a range of disciplines that had influenced me: dance, somatics, printmaking etc.

Project proposal 1 2007:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/122/

Online Research:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/u2-w10-3/

Essay Abstract October 27, 2009:

The essay was an area I found daunting to undertake, but turned out to be one of the most important elements of the course in providing a critical context for the project.

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/category/abstract/

November 15, 2009:

As the course has developed I have tried to keep asking more questions about the role of the body and have come to understand that it is the physical engagement experienced  when engaged in  processes like  printmaking and dance and that had been the initial points of reference for the project.  This was understanding was greatly clarified by seeing the performance work of Alastair MacLennan at Newcastle and the work of Marina Abramovic on line:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/934/

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/1022/

2. Demonstrate a critical engagement with practice-based research reflecting on

the critical skills and framework presentations.

Through out the MA I have tried to refine both context and methodology content of my practice.

Reading Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor and Aids and Its Metaphors was a turning point as Sontag’s writing made me aware of the extent to which the body maybe surreptitiously used as a site of social inscription:

September 26, 2008:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/u2-w3-3/

At the end of my first year I had to take a year out. Through out that year I kept blogging and researching issues surrounding representation of the body and health:

June 4^th 2009:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/543/

March 28^th, 2009:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/457/

Currently I have narrowed down the focus of research to the role of walking as a means to provide a context to question the role of the lived body and its use as a means of social inscription.

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/967/

3. Articulate a clear understanding of methodology and context in your creative

practice.

Action research has been the main methodology I have used to begin to explore developing the ideas for the project. Using video, paper based works, digital based pieces etc. to attempt to define which type of body movements to include and appropriate contexts for presenting them. It was rewarding working this way across many areas, but it did reveal that I hadn’t time tabled for the amount of information needed to take on board and meant  wasn’t always able to the best from the mediums:

Credo was a good example of learning process taking longer than I anticipated:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/479/

Links to movement video pieces to show use of action research:

This movement sequence was a piece of practical research that was successful in many areas: developing an animated sequence from video and providing a form of basic interaction.

These pieces also made me question the style of imagery used and if it sat well with the project content and to try to create a more empirically lead work.

http://madigitalmediamovementpractice.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/16/

http://madigitalmediamovementpractice.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/credo-soft-wear-down-load-trial/

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/996/

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/645/

The action research brought in to focus the necessity to provide a more focused context. This difficulty around providing a critical context began to become more resolved when I started engaging with the research essay.

Reading for critical context was something I had little experience of and was intimidated by, so found that the best way to build that skill was to read as much as possible in areas to do with dance, somatics sociology, and then psychology and found gradually the underlying concepts built up to make a frame work that I was able to transfer over in to the reading of art critiques and engage more with in that specific field.

4. Reading the following books and researching websites sites:

(http://susanmort.wordpress.com/category/bibliography/ )

4. Evaluate and present your Project.

My project started as an attempt at the examination of the possible link between our identities and our movements. In an attempt to try to understand why our physical engagement with mundane activities might contain relevance.

I came to focus on walking as an act of embodiment and engagement in an attempt to examine the role of the lived body in the digital age. An important piece of the jigsaw was reading on line of the research by professor Alejandro Lleras in to body movements having influence on problem solving.

June 10, 2009

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=579

This post refers to the point where I began to consider the idea of dualism and how it might be a factor in the understanding and expectations of the lived body in the digital age.

June 26, 2009

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/597/

Essay

The essay was an attempt to bring together some of the various threads of thought and research I had been carrying out and provide a contextual frame work for those emerging  ideas. I have attempted to establish that there is a proven link between our movements and cognitive process, that the body is used as a site of social inscription and that the digital environment has a direct impact on the developing brain, that society requires boundaries, which have previously been maintained through body language, facial expression, mores etc. With the removal of the human body in digital interaction many of these boundaries of our interactions are no longer maintainable, having an impact on our understandings of social structures and behaviors.

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/essay/

The aim with the final work in unit 2 is to continue to examine the role of the lived body through creating a well researched and appropriate work which will address these ideas.

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/1002/

5. Contribute actively to debate and discussion through Pathways and across

the course.

November 6, 2009:

Though I have struggled with the online chat environment I have attempted to contribute to the discussions, though not very successfully.  This has proved to be an area of the course in many ways that I feel I have made least progress in:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/890/

April 29, 2008:

Towards the end my first year in 2008 we were joined by PhD student Jem Mackay and invited to become involved with his project on mind mapping as a collaborative tool.

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/u2-29-april-2008/

May 26, 2008:

This experience brought the realization that I am still initially more comfortable where there is the possibility of backing up discussion of ideas through practical engagement. This was also the case with Mail Art which has helped provided an alternative route to open up areas of discussion.

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/u2-5/

December 3^rd, 2009:

Generous input from others on the course has provided both stimulus and insight:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/1002/

6. Be aware of your own personal and professional development.

When I entered the course in 2007 my practice had been on hold for over 8 years and I had not shown work since 2001.Since joining the MA I have been involved with a variety of projects. Including: Oxhouse online digital alphabet project, Peep Wardrobe Gallery, Field Show at EmptyShop Gallery and 2 shows held at Camberwell College.

I have developed and kept Mail Art in circulation through a variety of participating venues for the last 2 years, providing a platform to work with a number of peers from Camberwell as well as a wide range of artists world wide and venues, creating valuable experience such as the opportunity to co-curate the Mail Art show at the Long Gallery, Tron Theatre in Glasgow 2010, exhibiting at the Glasgow International Artists Bookfair 2010 and the place at the upcoming Emptyshop studios in Durham:

September 20, 2009

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/663/

Showing at Empty Shop Durham provided an opportunity to asses my work in a professional setting and have feedback from the public:

May 20, 2009

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/517/

Mail Art Summer 2009 Issue:

http://mailartone.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/mail-art-one-summer-2009/

I came to the course with very limited experience in digital media. The mid-point review reflects some of the ground covered in terms of gaining knowledge and confidence with the media:

MPR:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/category/mpr/

An area that hasn’t progressed as I would’ve  liked was the sketch books. This  area highlighted that I had not timetabled for realistically; found in practice course requirements and project development  took more time than expected. The sketch books have been very useful to keep a record of progress through practical work. These 2 sketch book entries are to show how my practice has become more focused and how have tried to develop the practical work.

5. Online Sketch books:

http://susanmort.wordpress.com/2007/11/17/72/

http://susanmortsketchbook.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/45/

Bibliography

Susan Hawthorne & Renate Klien

‘Cyber feminism’  Spinfex 1999

Joanna Zylinska

The Cyborg Experiments

Continuum 2002

Stelarc: the monograph
Editor Marquard Smith
MIT Press 2005

Merlin Coverley

‘Pschogeography.’

Pocket Essentials. 2006

Rebecca Solnit

‘Wanderlust: A History of walking.’

Verso.  2001

Duncan Minshull (Editor)

‘A Vintage Book of Walking.’

Vintage.  2000

Geoffrey Beattie

‘Visible thought: the new psychology of body language.’

Routledge.  2004.

Howard Rheingold

‘Virtual Reality.’

Seeker and Warburg 1991

Sarah H. Braddock Clarke and Marie O’Mahony

‘Techno Textiles.’

Thames and Hudson 2004

Rosemary Butcher and Susan Melrose

‘Rosemary Butcher: Choreography, Collisions and Collaborations.’

Middlesex University Press 2005

Daniel Lewis and Daniel Lewis

‘The Illustrated Dance Technique of Jose Limon’

Princeton Book Company Reprint edition (30 Oct 1999)

Sandra Cerny Minton

‘Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation.’

Human Kinetics 2003

Chris Townsend (Editor)

‘The Art of Bill Viola.’

Thames and Hudson 2004

Christopher Butler

‘Post Modernism: A Very Short introduction.’

Oxford University Press 2002

Drew Leder

‘The Absent Body.’

University of Chicago Press. 1990

Nicholas Mirzoeff

‘An Introduction To Visual Culture.’

Routledge 1999

Don Hanlon Johnson & Ian J. Grand (Editors)

‘The Body in Psychotherapy: Inquiries into Somatic Psychology.’

North Atlantic Books, Berkley, California. 1998

Don Hanlon Johnson

‘Bone Breath, and Gesture. Practices of Embodiment.’

North Atlantic Books, Berkley, California. 1995

Sadie Plant

‘Zeros and Ones. Digital Women and New Technoculture.’

Fourth Estate Limited 1988

Peter Ludlow,Yujin Nagasawa and Daniel Stoljar (Editors)

‘There’s Something About Mary. Essays on Phenomenal Consciousness and Frank Jackson’s knowledge Argument.’

The Mit Press. 2004

Susan Sontag

‘Illness as Metaphor and Aids ad Its Metaphors.’

Penguin Books 1990

Merleau-Ponty (translated by Oliver Davis)

‘The World of Perception.’

Routledge Classics 2002

Elaine Scarry

‘The Body In Pain.The Making and Unmaking of the World.’

Oxford University Press 1985

Donna J. Haraway

‘Simians, cyborgs and Women. The Reinvention of Nature.’

Free Association Books. 1991

Griselda Pollock
‘Vision and Difference’  .

Routlege Classics. 1988

Val Williams & Susan Bright.

‘How we are  photographing Britain.’

Tate publishing. 2007.

Paola Rapelli

‘Goya’.

Dorling Kindersley.

John Brockman

‘Science at the edge.’

Weidenfeld and Nicholson.2004.

Tom Sorell

‘Descartes a very short introduction.’

Oxford University Press. 2000

Daniel Goleman

‘Social Intelligence, new science of human relationships.’

Hutchinson. 2006

David Hockney.

‘That’s the way I see it.’

Thames and Hudson.  1999.

Sherry Turkle

‘The second self. Computers and the human spirit.’

Simon and Schuster. 1985

Sherry Turkle

‘Life on the screen. Identity in the age of the internet.’

Simon and Schuster. 1995

Howard Rheingold

‘The virtual community.’

MIT Press. 2000

John Bowlby.

‘A secure base.’

Routledge. 1988.

Janet H. Murray.

‘Hamlet on the holodeck. The future of narrative in cyberspace.’

The Free Press. 1997

Antonio Damasio:

‘The feeling Of What Happens: body, emotion and the making of consciousness.’

Vintage. 2000

Antonio Damasio

‘Descartes’ Error’.

Vintage Books.1994

AntonyGormley:

‘Some Of The Facts.’

Tate St. Ives. 2001.

Alexandra Howson:

‘The Body In Society.’

Polity. 2004.

Don Hanlon Johnson & Ian J. Grand (editors):

‘The Body In Psychothrapy: Inquiries In Somatic Psychology.’

North Atlantic Books. 1998.

Jeffery Maitland:

‘Spacious Body: Explorations In Somatic Ontology.’

North Atlantic Books. 1995.

Viktor E. Frankl

‘Man’s Search For Meaning.’

Megaman NT Warrior. Ryo Takamisaki. VizKids. 2004

Grayson Perry with Wendy Jones

‘A portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl.’

Chatto and Windus.  2006

Rider. 2004.

ONLINE REFRENCES:

Enculturation. (2007, November 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:53, March 13, 2008, from 5http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enculturation&oldid=169805075

Mores. (2008, March 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:54, March 13, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mores&oldid=197683511

TRUST AND PRIVACY IN CYBERSPACE: A VIEW FROM

AN ASIAN VANTAGE POINT

Mr Rohan Samarajiva
Director-General of Telecommunications
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission
Sri Lanka

http://sociologyindex.com/cyberculture.htm

‘The Money programme: Email is rung my life.’

BBC Television 2008

the money programme 2.rtf

2008.

Walking definition from Wikipedia

http://pattiebellehastings.net/projects/cyborg/manual/cmbook06.html

Wikipedia:

Drift

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dérive

Article by Guy Ernst Debord

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/89

Artist Patti Belle Hastings website Cyborg Mommy.

http://pattiebellehastings.net/projects/cyborg/manual/cmbook06.html

Choreographer Edouard Locke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaM0B6Cnx90&feature=related

Wikipedia: Embodied Cognition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition

Ariana Page Russell

Skin Condition Made into art

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/03/skin-condition-dermatographia-made-into-art/

Stelarc

http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKEfJRe4uys&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDaNyZgtzrU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjFVuJDK0T4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKZN2Bo490U&feature=related

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Stelarc

http://switch.sjsu.edu/v19/00001r

http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/absent/absent.html

Haraway

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~RF6T-TYfk/haraway.html

Donna Haraway. (2008, February 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:54, March 13, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donna_Haraway&oldid=193932098

Sadie plant

http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cpace/body/lgl1.html

Alva Noe

http://www.dance-tech.net/video/authorsgoogle-alva-noe-a

http://www.dance-tech.net/video/1462368:Video:19594

Marlon Barrios Solano

http://www.dance-tech.net/profiles/blogs/interview-with-marlon-barrios

http://www.dance-tech.net/profiles/blogs/interview-with-marlon-barrios-1