Beauty and Aesthetics


This lecture wasn't too full-on as half of the class didn't attend. Our first assignment (a Literature review) was due at 4pm and also The following day our Studio hand in. We'll then be spending the next 2 weeks (I think) doing our next paper on XCode.

[I'll cover the subject in more detail later....]

Related, this weekend wound up being for most of the class the weekend they did their Literature review. Unfortunately I was just as disorganised. Well, it wasn't just plain disorganisation, it was related to not really knowing how to do the research part properly in conjunction with having a studio project that was also quite demanding yet so much easier to make tangible progress in. The result for me and many others is a Literature review hashed together the night before. I'm told that this is a fairly normal thing for students to do by a friend who has been there and done that. At least first year students. I find it pretty unacceptable to work like that but at least this time, being my first induction to the whole academic writing thing, it's probably understandable especially given that just about everybody does it.

I up skilled massively this weekend, learning how to research my subject in an academic fashion (it's not quite the same as real-world methods) and actively reading, and of course then came the lamenting "If only I'd done this last weekend". Of course last weekend I was mucking around with video footage.

The word limit was low (1500-2000) and the question was fairly simple: In what ways can the creative practice integrate both math and art? If I'd been asked this question and just expected to answer off the top of my head I'm fairly certain I could have come up with 1500 words of examples. Perhaps. Or perhaps if I'd tried, I'd discover my ideas are actually quite vague. Either way my job was to pull current writings on the subject and compare and contrast them. If I was to do this again I'd do it well, as now I suddenly have the understanding of how to do such a thing. I will use these skills in the future. But for this literature review those skills are not apparent. What I submitted was truly awful. It's embarrassing really. As time started to run out, I was increasingly aware of my lack of sleep and with 2 hours for deadline I just did not care anymore. My last 3 paragraphs are mere sentences, the conclusion is short and weak and half way through my references went out the window.

But I'll just have to deal with it and do better next time. Most of the class are also unhappy with their submissions, so I'm in good company.