Focus

I presented my slides in a peer group and got some feedback on how I can move my project forward. I have strong links between my essay and my practical work, am have started using my practical work to communicate the themes and theories in my essay and research. I am still not sure how best to communicate my ideas and progress my research through image but I got some good feedback today that helped me fine tune my ideas. I want to use shape for the basis of work, I started out thinking about doorways and portals as fiction has been described as a doorway to another world but the idea needs to be pushed further to communicate the theories I have been researching and to help me see them from a new perspective. My research and my practical work ideas are both focussed on the theme of society. As my essay has progressed I have become more focussed on the effect fiction has had on society and new theories that have suggested fiction may even more important than we think. I want my practical work to bring together fiction and society/the real world and the fantasy worlds we visit. I want my practical work to improve my practice, I would like to work in ways I haven't before. If possible I would like to make my practical work into a product that would appeal to fans of fiction. Something I had not though about until talking through my project with my peers is the importance of fiction in education and promoting literacy, I have spoken about it within my essay but have not considered it in my practical work so far. I have read interviews with Neil Gaiman where he talks about the importance of literacy and the genre snobbery in literature. I would like to find a way to tackle the hierarchy in literature and the popular trends that decide what is and isn't suitable for children to read.

I need to start working in my journal as soon as possible, I have started with some roughs outside of the journal but I have been treating the journal as if it is precious and reserved for final pieces. I want to have a number of tests in my journal by the time we hand in our essay draft on the 29th of January. Not finished pieces but ideas tested out. I need to get started and get a better idea of what I want to do. I find it hard to make a plan at this stage without fully understanding my direction. I want to reach my target on the 29th and make a more detailed plan at that that stage when I will hopefully have more direction.