I’ve really enjoyed Context of Practice again, even more so than last year. This is probably down to the increased amount of one-to-one time with a tutor where I was able to discuss things relevant to a topic which I picked because I was interested in it. The lack of lectures like “City and Film” from last year which had barely if any relevance to the work I was doing removed a stigma from the module, making it easier to enjoy. Not only have I enjoyed the module, but I feel like I’ve grown as a person from studying what I studied - I feel less worried when doing my own thing, and feel generally more confident about myself and my work, so it would be no exaggeration to say that this module has not only effected my attitude towards my work, but also my life in general.
Beyond this I’m really pleased with how feel I feel I’ve understood and interpreted a subject as complicated and occasionally unclear as Nietzschean philosophy, and particularly how well I articulated it’s appropriation to graphic design, a context in which I was initially concerned would be too far from philosophy to make the essay work. The addition of the thoughts of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and to a lesser extent Niebuhr, allow for the essay to show not only how Nietzschean philosophy fits into the context of graphic design, but also how graphic design fits into a philosophical context broader than just Nietzsche.
Coming up with an idea to practically show my understanding of my subject was really difficult because neither Nietzsche nor The First Things First Manifesto are directly responsible the production of graphic design, hence why I chose to produce a publication - a medium of design which is as much about distribution as it is about communication, as is the case for a manifesto or a train of philosophical thought. However, by using the conclusions reached in my essay, the form of the publication was able to follow Nietzschean principles to physically combat the modernist principles that are generally supported by the First Things First Manifesto.
When blogging about my research I innately wrote about why I was doing that research in particular, what I was going to do next, and why. In particular I feel the order in which I undertook my readings was logical and well-reasoned as it allowed me to find a balance between a truly original reading of Nietzsche with influence of well-informed opinions of his works from secondary sources, particularly from Lee Spinks and Arthur Danto. The secondary sources were chosen as the former was suggested by my tutor and the latter received numerous good reviews on the internet, so in that sense it could be argued that there was even some tertiary research involved in my project. Being able to select which books and journal articles to read as effectively as I did from the very beginning of the project allowed me to keep my focus on the critical analysis of the sources rather than the usefulness of the sources, which was really helpful. The main weak point of my research was the lack of variety, however, I’d argue that the nature of my project didn’t lend itself very well to some forms of research that may have been more present in other projects. For example, my project required more qualitative research than quantitative research which, in general, makes testable processes difficult to undertake accurately. When this is considered in the context of my project it would’ve been even harder as finding a big enough sample of people who understood Nietzschean philosophy to make the tests accurate would’ve been a difficult enough task in itself.
As previously alluded to, I feel my planning and time management was excellent throughout this module, the amount of reading/research I did over summer, my timeline reflection document, and confirmation of blog posts are all testament to this as they demonstrate the consistency that ran throughout my undertaking of this project. The fact that there was recently a period of a couple of weeks where I was unable to do much due to illness, hence the big blog gap between the 21st of December and the 1st of January, and I’m still very happy to submit my project in it’s final state on time is further proof of this. Planning and time management has proven to be one of my main strengths, so, without trying to sound arrogant, I’m not particularly surprised by this.
In my mind the weakest part of this project is the crafting quality of the practical element. This is down to a combination of the poor alignment of the printers causing me to have less room to trim edges, and my lack of experience of book-binding in general. Retrospectively I should have met with the book-binding assistant months ago to discuss the practicalities of what I wanted to do, something which didn’t occur to me at the time, partly due to my enthusiasm to get on with the project. Whilst the order in which I read the books was well thought out and logical as previously mentioned, I now find myself regretting reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra first - retrospectively I enjoyed it more than any of Nietzsche’s other books, and wish I could’ve read it at a point where my knowledge and understanding of Nietzschean philosophy was stronger, so perhaps reading it 4th or 5th would’ve been better, but this is only a minor change. Other than these couple of things, I’m really pleased with how I undertook the project and wouldn’t have done much differently given another chance.
Outside of the project, I feel like my general performance in the module was really good, things such as being as fully prepared as possible for my 1-on-1 tutorials, making sure I took notes from lectures on things like academic conventions, and the consistency of my blogging are examples of this. That said, I feel like the demands of this module in terms of numbers of lectures and seminars etc were a lot lower than in previous CoP modules, so I don’t see any real excuses for me to less consistently punctual and prepared as I was for each session.
Like previously mentioned, I feel like this project has made me grow as a person as it’s impacted slightly on the way I think. I’m also going to re-read Thus Spoke Zarathustra in the hope that I enjoy it even more with my new-found understanding of Nietzsche’s thoughts. In terms of the influence the project has had on my remaining modules, the improved confidence I have from this project will really help me with PPP in areas such as networking and presentations. Extended Practice has already been influenced as I approached the Clockwork Orange brief from an existentialist point of view to create a strong outcome that I wouldn’t have got any other way, hopefully this will be a theme amongst the rest of my projects, as I was really pleased with how the approach aided my process.
