In Unit 3 you are asked to write an essay. All the details about this essay are below.
Please begin by watching this video briefing from Zoë Mendelson.
You will find it useful to take notes during the briefing.
You may want to return to the video at different stages of writing the essay so you can keep track of all the information and support provided.
The brief
Write an essay of 1000 words, reflecting on an exhibition or talk/event you have seen (online or off) This is a written evaluation of an event - selected by you. You will need to carry out research that extends your experience, using quotation and including a bibliography.
Approaches to Writing:
Before you start writing, you may want to make a mind map, think of keywords and do a literature review. The literature review refers to gathering your sources and getting to know the material.
1000 words is about the length of a newspaper article or review. Your bibliography will not count in this wordcount. You can reflect on an exhibition, an event or a talk – all of which may have taken place online or off. Try to select something you are curious about, and that has a relationship to your own practice.
Exhibitions: We suggest that you reflect on the curation of an exhibition as well as its thematic/content. You may wish to hone in on specific works or a particular mode of presentation. Consider how your encounter with the work was mediated by a press release or choreographed view/video. Perhaps there were wall texts to guide your viewing. You could reflect on the shift from the real to the virtual when it comes to exhibitions and, even popular public collections. To manage your extended research, you could look up how others have critiqued curation, or engaged with the thematic concerned or, indeed, written about these artists’ works.
Talks and Events: If you are reflecting on a talk or event, you may want to discuss its format and the roles of those invited. Was it participatory? How were audiences introduced to the issues or ideas being discussed? You may wish to hone in on a specific question or a particular idea that struck you as important/curious from the wider event. To manage your extended research, you could look up the thematic concerned and engage with others’ writings on the subject, or research critical responses to the move online.
For information on how to write a bibliography and to reference your citations using the Harvard method, please refer to ‘Cite Them Right online’ here and log in using your UAL details.
An essay of 1000 words in length should include at least three quotations to root your ideas in research and provide an attachment to others’ voices.
Use our inclusive bibliography, The Edit, at www.theedit.site It is categorised in subject headings and also contains resources on writing/how to research. The subject headings reveal books, audio, online sources and links.
