How to select a great A2 Art Personal Study Topic
Final Updated on February eight, 2017
This is the first in a series of articles aimed at helping A Level Art students with their Personal Report (a project which is required as part of CIE A2 Art & Design). This article outlines twelve guidelines for selecting a good topic. The recommendations are based on my own feel with the instruction of this component, discussions with examiners during CIE training days and the feedback given within Examiner Reports.
1.The topic must relate to Fine art or Design
This sounds obvious and something that should not demand maxim, but, absurdly, it does. For some, inexplicable reason, students proceed to submit projects that are completely unrelated to Art or Blueprint. This is a quote from a contempo CIE Examiner Study:
In that location were numerous inappropriate submissions which were non concerned with any aspect of Art and Blueprint. These included such topics as 'Giving up smoking', 'The biology of the senses', 'Growing tea on a plantation', every bit well as aspects of tourism, green issues and political themes.
two. The topic should exist something that you lot are genuinely interested in
The ultimate purpose of your Personal Written report is to teach you something: to help yous develop as an artist and to strengthen your understanding of art-related issues. The most successful Personal Studies communicate 'a strong sense of involvement through personal enthusiasm and a delivery to sustain the investigation'.
Just speaking, when you are passionate virtually a topic, you are more likely to do well.
three. The focus of your Personal Study should exist procedure and materials (the mode an artist or group of artists use/s media) or subject or theme (the way an artist approaches a topic, usually with reference to limerick and technique)
In other words, your Personal Report should involve the analysis of specific pieces of art; information technology should Not be the life story of an artist or the documentation of a wide menses of Art history (unless this somehow includes sufficient focus upon specific artworks).
4. A topic should provide you sufficient material to write about, while not beingness so vast that your project becomes all-encompassing, disjointed or surface-deep
In gild to produce a high quality Personal Study, yous need to have a clear, well-articulated focus. This gives yous something to organise your project around and encourages y'all to write with coherence and structure (a lack management is a common weakness in depression achieving Personal Studies). Completing an entire projection around the analysis of one or two artwork, for example, is limiting, while attempting to analyse Abstract Art in all of its entirety (without any connection to a specific artist) sets upwardly an enormous, daunting task which cannot exist given justice in the time given.
five. The written report should be almost someone else's art (not your own)
This is an expanse where CIE Art & Design students are often confused. There is an wrong belief that students are expected to submit a torso of original artistic work as part of the Personal Study, like to that produced for the Coursework project (some students fifty-fifty go so far every bit submitting only original practical work or additional Coursework pieces for this component – frequently with no notation or explanation – which does not satisfy the requirements of the Personal Study at all). While the Personal Study certainly can – and in the bulk of cases should – include beautiful practical piece of work completed by the pupil, the Personal Study is about analysing, studying and learning from other artists: it is Not nearly producing original artwork on your own topic (more than information about the images used in a Personal Study will be given in a subsequent article). This quote from CIE helps to clarify this:
The main aim of the Personal Study is to encourage candidates to focus on selected examples of existing works of fine art or design from established contemporary or historical practitioners, seen at starting time hand, by making disquisitional judgements and personal evaluations.
Note that this article has been written for CIE A2 Fine art Personal Studies: Personal Studies required for other exam boards differ in some respects.
half-dozen. A link to your Coursework can be advantageous
Although information technology is not necessary for CIE Art & Design students to select a Personal Study topic which relates to their A2 Coursework project, the examiners comment that 'good practice might suggest that a link between the two is advisable'. This is because a selecting a related topic allows you to acquire knowledge, skills and understanding that may assist you to complete your Coursework to a higher standard. (Remember that if you refer to your Coursework project within your Personal Written report y'all should include photos to help explain what you are saying. Each component is assessed individually and examiners exercise not have access to your Coursework project while they are assessing your Personal Study).
7. Choose a topic that allows you to view artwork start-paw
This is non a guideline: it is imperative. In my feel, the best CIE A2 Art Personal Studies are produced when students non only view artwork in the flesh (in a gallery or museum exhibition, for example), but are able to run into and interview the artist or designer and see their methods of working. This gives opportunity for the piece of work to be understood in cracking detail (seeing true colours, textural surface qualities and the existent scale of the piece) and encourages truly personal responses. It also ways that students can take beautiful photographs of the artist or designer working in their studio and see all of the processes and various stages of completion. Examiners frequently study that lower grade Personal Studies ignore this requirement and depend more heavily on secondary sources: lifeless reproductions from books and the net.
viii. Contrasting and comparing the work of artists can exist helpful
Studying the work of a mainstream or critically acclaimed artist alongside a local artist can be beneficial, peculiarly if the local artist is less established. This gives y'all the best of both worlds (the enthusiasm and first-mitt contact from a local creative person, plus the insight that comes from studying historical, contemporary and/or international artists who work in some other cultural context). Yous may, for example, choose to focus upon two artists who paint the same field of study in a different mode, or to discuss the influence of a famous creative person upon a local painter. It should be noted that the examiners empathise that many students will non exist able to see all of the artworks they study in the mankind, then supporting starting time-mitt study with those viewed in reproduction is absolutely acceptable.
nine. Select a topic that is supported by quality reference cloth
While the Personal Study is centred around your ain personal responses, drawing on the opinions of educated critics tin can provide insight and a depth of understanding: grounding, validating and/or challenging your own views. Before finalising upon a Personal Study topic for A2 Art, bank check to see if there are existing manufactures, books or online reviews about the artists in question. This also helps to verify that the artist you have selected has some standing in the fine art community and is thus probable to be an advisable and valuable person to study. It should exist noted, of grade, that in many cases, the more well-known an artist is, the less time they have to accommodate visits from eager high school students; sometimes relatively unknown artists tin exist very skilled and take much to teach a loftier school Fine art student.
x. Word your title so that information technology captures the essence of your Personal Study and indicates a well-chosen focus
For case: 'The Portraiture of [artist name]: An Appreciation of Light and Colour' is more advisable than 'Portraiture in Art'. 'The apply of Symbolism in Traditional and Contemporary Weaving' (an example given in the CIE 9704 Art & Blueprint syllabus) is more appropriate than 'The Fine art of Weaving'. 'Landscapes of the Idurah Valley' (another example given in the syllabus) is more appropriate than 'Landscape Paintings'. 'An Investigation into Gender Roles in Gimmicky Fine art' is meliorate than 'Contemporary Art'. In the former examples, the title helps to analyze the focus of the study; the latter advise an enormously wide study that would be difficult to complete well. Similarly, it is as well benign to avoid overly simplistic titles that convey petty information, such every bit '[artist proper name] Personal Study' or 'Fish'. Ideally, the examiner a articulate idea virtually what your study is almost (and be impressed) from the first moment they run across your project.
eleven. Select your Personal Report topic near the commencement of the A2 Art Grade
The Personal Written report is a large and comprehensive project. Information technology is incommunicable to complete in its entirety (and achieve a good course) at the last minute. It can be good practice to first thinking about your topic selection at the conclusion of the AS Form. High achieving students often utilise the winter or summer break, seeking out artists who are available for interview locally. This leaves them in a strong position to get-go the A2 year (it can be wise to bear upon base with teachers prior to making contact with an artist, however, to avoid wasting anyone'due south fourth dimension). Regardless of whether the vacation menses is utilised, it is essential that the Personal Study receives regular attention (ideally within scheduled class time equally well as in homework sessions) so that students tin programme, research and complete the project in a systematic, organised way.
12. Submit an Outline Proposal Form to CIE before you begin
While this is not a requirement, all students should exist encouraged to do this. Any concern about the suitability of a topic can be overcome by making use of the Outline Proposal Forms (OPF). This is a complimentary fashion of gaining invaluable feedback from the official CIE Senior Moderator before you brainstorm. Blank forms are available on the password protected Teachers' Support Site and can be submitted electronically to CIE for approval. It is important to note that the brief feedback given should be read with great intendance and ever adhered to. This course should and then be retained and submitted forth with the finished Personal Study.
An instance of the CIE Examiner Reports quoted in this commodity can be found on the publicly accessible Art & Design section of the CIE website. Further reports are bachelor from the password protected Teachers' Support Site.
The side by side commodity in this series discusses how to write a Personal Study. A subsequent mail service will focus on the images. You may likewise be interested in reading our overview of the CIE A2 Art Personal Study.
Amiria has been an Art & Design instructor and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for 7 years, responsible for the class design and cess of educatee piece of work in two loftier-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Available of Architecture (First Course Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Instruction. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Fine art & Design Coursework Assessor.
Source: https://www.studentartguide.com/articles/a2-art-personal-study-topic
0 Response to "How to select a great A2 Art Personal Study Topic"
Post a Comment