I've been told that I'm a good student—and I like to think so myself. I dont't like talking badly about my university because I enjoy being a student at UWE. In fact I'm usually quite proud to be here and to study on this course even though I do realise more and more that it´s probably not the best course in the world. But people who know me, know that I make the best of most things. Though people who know me also know that I like ranting about most things. The module I'm currently undertaking is one of those things.
I don't want to make things sound worse than they are, so read these lines with care. I just want to vent some of my anger that I have with the module that bears the beautiful title "Exploring Graphic Design Process". It´s a pre-requisite module with 40 credits. For my European friends: that is equivalent to 20 ECTS credits, yes quite a huge chunk of a module and nothing you would want to mess with in the middle of your studies. In this course you don't have a large choice of where you want to steer your learning towards. So there aren't little 2-5 credit chunks that you can shuffle around to suit your personal learning preference, your timetable or your personal situation. Instead in each semester you get fed a 40 credit 'pre-requisit' module and a 20 credit one (thats 20 and 10 ECTS credits respectively). They are both compulsory and in fact there is no choice at all. In the 4th semester you get to choose one of five or so option modules with 40 credits (no maths necessary here either) plus a compulsory 20 credit theory module (again thats equivalent to 20 and 10 ECTS). This is just to explain the situation and I'm not complaining about this system, it has been working well if the modules were delivered well.
A little problem arises just when you're stuck with a 40 credit pre-requisite compulsory module that you do not enjoy. D'oh! What do you do in this situation?
'Exploring Graphic Design Process' is looking at my personal design process. I'm supposed to explore a personal design process and methodology in relation to Graphic Design practice through this module. What does that mean? Have I been designing blindly throughout the last 2 years of my foundation course and semester 1 and 2 without using a process? Did things just happen without plan without consideration? Am I supposed to start thinking just now and I wasn't required to do that for the last year? Am I ahead of everybody else or what? The teaching methodology of this module is interesting too. It tries to teach me about my design process by 'deliberately' not using the online learning space but handing out photocopied briefs with at least 3 spelling mistakes in each one of them. Is that part of the game? Am I meant to spot them? The briefs are numbered and the numbering system is interesting too. We started with two projects without a number and then got project 1 handed out. That´s not too odd so far—until we got "project one and three quarter" (nb. spot the grammar error here). What followed was project 2 and then suddenly "project one and half" (sic!). Project 7 is the last and project 1.25 (or let´s assume it would have been named "project one and quarter") never appeared. Yes, perhaps I'm splitting hairs here, but why on earth does a very important 40 credit pre-requisit academic module undermine its own integrity by doing this nonsense? Or am I not actually supposed to take it seriously? I feel like I'm being treated like a child. There is no formal teaching in this very important 40 credit pre-requisite module. We just have to come in on Fridays, sit down and listen to a freestyle stand-up lecture that is going through the same things over and over again. "It´s about appropriateness", "You need to consider your process", "You make design decisions" and "how do you deal with this?" in a scottish accent. It reminds me of a religious preaching and not of an academic lecture. But it´s not supposed to be academic. This is only a 40 credit pre-requisit module. Occasionally we are forced encouraged to take parts in somebody´s art project where we have to stand on the lawn and spell out letters with our arms and legs and being filmed doing so. Nobody was told what happens to the footage and photographs and that alone is scandalous. But hey, as long as it helps me to find my design process and methodology.
ermutigt an irgendwelchen künstlerischen Aktionen teilzunehmen. Da stehen wir dann auf der Wiese rum und buchstabieren irgendwelche Wörter mit Armen und Beinen und werden dabei gefilmt. Niemand hat uns je verraten was mit den Aufnahmen passiert und das allein finde ich skandalös. Aber hey, solange es mit hilft meinen Gestaltungsprozess und Methodik zu finden.
Part of my personal methodology is ranting. When I encounter a problem, I start ranting about it. It doesn't solve it but it helps to verbalise the arguments. That´s what I do now. I rant. I've got 13 days left to do about the same number of tasks and present them nicely in a portfolio. Yes, the workload is insane. And what´s just as insane is that instead of sitting down on my bottom and do the work, I start ranting on the web. So much for my process. I will continue doing a little rant write up about each little project as I process through them. So watch this space.
schreiben so wie ich sie fertig stelle. Also dranbleiben.
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