OUGD601 Context of Practice 03 Module Evaluation

Throughout the process of researching and writing the essay part of this module I spent time establishing a solid approach and methodology for understanding and communicating the central ideas of my dissertation. This involved large amount of organisation of time, thoughts and resources to achieve a well rounded discussion of craft n the digital age. The strenuous planning process I went through also meant that my writing was much more concise than in past essay, as waffling has always been an issue for me. Despite this I did have trouble fitting to the word count and the carefully planned structure meant that taking material out effected the connectivity of each point. However, I did manage to edit down, still being a bit close to the upper limit of the word count, to my great discomfort. Bringing all of the theory together tot focus on chalkboarding examples of craft practice worked really well. It allowed me to connect my own practice to the theory before I even started working on the practical, making the transition all the more seamless. It also made finding examples easy because the chalk art world is something I make a point to be aware of.
The practical piece was a real challenge, mostly because of the scale of the job and the many methods I needed to examine the different type of proximity in the practical process. Overall I am really happy with it, specifically the variation in design and the colour usage. However, there are areas that I would  like to improve on, like the layout of board two and the photography of the final pieces which could be better but was made difficult by the artificial lighting of the space and its public nature.
What is strongest about this project as a whole from my perspective is the synthesis of the essay and practical. In the past this is something that I have struggled with but this time the theory methodology transferred perfectly into the practical process. I do wish I could have improved the recording methods for the emotional proximity aspect of the practical, but the size of the project made this really tricky to do. Possibly, I should have made the practical outcome smaller and the reflect on the practical larger. The critical journal also united the two pieces, the observation of the practical feeding into the discussion of the essay. What is most satisfying is the way the essay divided up the theory to analyse it and then it was united in the practical, divided again by the methodical analysis of the practical, feeding back into the essay. Divided in theory, united in practice.