Exploring footwear. An investigation into aesthetic, cultural and artistic influences on shoe design.

Master's degree

Diary

Diary or Blog, call it what you will. Here are my thoughts, shot from the hip as they unfold and evolve over the course of my studies.

12 January 2007: This must be the most concise blog in history - I have completed my MA with a pass. I'll use it to grow my skills in shoe and image making, adding more content to this website.

10 January 2005: First day on the MA course, did not sleep very well last night. Worrying about what was going to happen on this first day. Was not sure if I was taking on too much, was not sure if I would be able to cope with the amount of work that would be expected of me. Also, not sure if I was intelligent enough to understand the academic speak, which would undoubtedly be thrust upon us. Finding the room was a big enough nightmare, but eventually I found it and went and sat down. I did know some of the people already there and said my hello’s to everyone that I already knew. There were a lot of chairs in this empty room, but they soon started to fill up and a woman called Sasha sat next to me. We immediately started chatting and I found out that she was a dancer and had done some teaching in Manchester. She said she liked the look of Nottingham from the little that she had seen. She had just arrived from Oldham and so Basford was heaven for her! We exchanged phone numbers and I gave her my business card. We then settled in for a long winded introduction to all of the lecturers. We were also informed that this big group consisted of other art-related MA students as well as our own Creative Collaborations group. We then went out on the NTU tour and were taken to all of the new toys that were at our fingertips. The Digital Laboratory, the dance auditorium, Victoria Studios and lots of other wonderful rooms full of lovely yummy software and techno toys! We were all very impressed and I just wished I could have undertaken a full time course so that I could have access to these gismos. I would have to think very carefully how I will be able to access these facilities whilst affording child care and balancing other family commitments. We then came back and had a gorgeous lunch and time to talk to the people in my group. I spoke to Carol, who was someone I felt I could get on very well with, as well as Nicola and Ga? Overall, a very enjoyable day, only wished we could have stayed longer in the different rooms to experiment with the goodies!

11 January 2005; MA meeting 3:30pm: Took place in the MA room and consisted of Jim and Frank explaining about about the upcoming Lectures and seminars. This sounded to me like a very easy-going experience and I was totally floored as to the relaxed way in which this MA was being put across. There was no feeling of doom and gloom, only freedom of expression and free access to all the University had to offer. I was definitely in a positive frame of mind after this initial discussion.

12 January 2005; "Second Wednesday" club 6:30pm: I trawled the internet looking for networking opportunities in Nottingham that did not cost an arm and a leg to join. I came across this one, which meets on the Second Wednesday every month. I emailed Nick King who invitied me to this meeting tonight and asked if I would like to give a presentation, but I felt too under confident to be able to do this to a bunch of people who I had never met before - what a chicken! Anyway, the evening did not go too well, but I did get to speak to someone from EM Media who was extremely helpful. He was able to give me lots of information, but I need to speak to EM Media and perhaps have a meeting with them to see how I can progress this further.

13 January 2005; NBV Night Out: This was the first get together since before Christmas for my Business Course group members. It was held at Shaws in Nottingham and was a great night to meet up with everyone and exchange news and information.

18 January 2005; MA Lecture - 6-7 pm: This was a lecture by renowned installation artist John Newling. He talked about his installations and how he researched them and what consisted of research and how to construct a researched project, using evidence and evaluation systems. I found this lecture very high brow and not very interesting, although it did give me an in-depth understanding of how to convince others of my concept and idea. It also showed me how much money certain groups are prepared to pay out for some quite outrageously (in my opinion) wastes of money - quite literally I was stunned and I felt it was obscene to talk about these large amounts of money (£200,000) for one particular project, when we were just getting over the Tsunami disaster. I felt physically sick and totally unlevelled by the cold calculating way in which he boasted about the amount of money he has secured for the spurious and unconvincing “Research Projects” - at least to me anyway! Although in saying this I now have an idea for an Installation - how crap do I feel now! I am now torn between feeling indignation that money is spent so frivolously and the fact that I had my own idea of intending on doing the same thing but on a smaller budget!

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All images and texts (unless otherwise stated) © Susan Graves 2000 - 2008