Evaluation of project

COP3 draws to a close, so let us take a moment to relax and reflect with a good old evaluation of the project. 

This module has been a challenge, as COP usually is but I had a lot of fun doing it! My project based around the question "How Does Feminist Art Appropriate media originally intended for male consumption in order to subvert the male gaze?" I think I made a good choice of question as I didn't really have to change it too much from what I started with. I toyed with a lot of ideas over summer that my brain was getting a little overloaded, but through exploring this question I think I actually ended up including a lot of the points I had initially including ; authorship, censorship, the vagina dentata etc. 

I know I did not manage my time well. I never do. I did make some attempt to, but it felt like so much was happening at once. I enjoyed working on the dissertation and theoretical side even though I don't feel confident with my writing, the writing side of my project always ends up stronger than my practical side. 

My practical work started off slow, I was definitely behind for some time. A lot of people had a product they felt they wanted to do but I didn't have that strong feeling at the same time, so I feel like I rushed myself into choosing a product which was appropriate, which was the magazine. Technically I have improved photomanipulation skills and my final magazine product relates well to my dissertation question. There is synthesis in the fact my product is partially made from media that was intended for male consumption, but I have altered it so it subverts the gaze. I have done this by identifying key visual techniques in male-orientated media such as the passive look of women and how they are unaware they are being looked upon, the erasure of bodily functions and features such as body hair, the mystification of the female body - and finding ways of drawing a lot of attention to this - for example the use of eyes in unconventional places to turn the gaze back on the viewer. I loved how the magazine turned out as it does genuinely look just like a magazine, thanks to the glossy thin paper down in the print dungeon. 

My one regret for this was not doing loads more drawing and exploration of the project. I really wish I'd just done tonnes of drawings to work from. In the end I did some little experiments with pin up drawings to bring some traditional work back in, I didn't want to force it though, but I thought it was still relevent to the project. I wish I'd given myself more time to make weird gif's because I think that weird blinking gif was one of my favourite pieces from this project. Maybe a sign I should do more gifs in the future. 

Overall I'm happy with the progress I've made in this module, I think I've gained more research skills and developed some very different skills (photomanipulation, using indesign) that I can use in the future.