Being Observed 2

I decided to send an email around our tutor group to see if anyone was interested in observing my Drawing reading group session on the 19th April, the first one after the action research project, the first one I had ever led.

Mah agreed and was available. We prepared the observation by email and I sent her the ‘text’ we were going to discuss (Sebald W G (1998) The Rings of Saturn London: The Harvill Press, pp. 3-26) and the questions I proposed for discussion:

• How can we present and re-present practice based research with the constraints of the thesis model?

• What are the alternatives for engaging with texts and works simultaneously?

• What examples of 'vehicles', combining text and works (rather than only images or documentation) can you think of?

• Is the inclusion of critical analysis (text in museums etc...) within the work a valid model?

I had no trouble finding appropriate questions for 2 main reasons: a) they represented problems within my own research (see seduction log) and b) they emanated from previous Drawing Reading Group discussions. Sebald’s text represented the issue very well. He was someone that was outside the Drawing/Art field (The Rings of Saturn is a novel, a particular one, because it includes pictures) and I thought it could be useful to get some distance from Drawing in order to gain perspective on the particular problem. Of course, the relationship and pertinence of the text is something I wanted Mah to observe.

All the regular students confirmed attendance and I also had an email from a PhD student at Kingston University. This is the first time we were going to get an ‘outsider’ to our group of drawers and I was keen to see how would I deal with that. Their understanding of what research is might not be what we impart to our students (which stems from a rigorous and sceptical scientific model). At the last minute, Kingston student decided give the Drawing Reading Group a miss and attend only the conference we were having the day after. Having seen her at the conference, I really want her to come to the sessions. She is controversial and is not afraid to speak up and, although I missed the opportunity of being observed in my teaching situation with her, I think she could benefit and steer the group.

The day of the observation turned out to be a nightmare as everything was happening at the same time: from builders refurbishing our kitchen and our bathroom to students needing to talk to me about last minute AHRB changes. I got away and went to meet Rah at Wimbledon station. We wanted to use that 15-minute walk to discuss last minute issues. As we entered the Research Centre, one of our students asked if we could run the session at the Centre for Drawing rather than the training room because she is in the middle of a laborious drawing process and she only had a couple of days of room booking left. I agreed. In my job I have learned to be extremely flexible with research students. New knowledge can happen anywhere at anytime. If that presented a problem, I decided I would tell her to stop drawing and join us ‘normally’. I obviously had to prepare the room as I wanted it, which was with a table. Fortunately, I found it quick and that did not obstruct the session too much. I asked everyone to introduce themselves to Mah, saying their names and explaining what their projects were about, particularly the student who was drawing on a small paper while looking at a heart tissue through a microscope. The situation was surreal, but then so was my day so I decided to just go with the flow and get the discussion going.

I have to say that the drawing practice did not obstruct the discussion at all. The student participated in the same way as I have seen her do when seated around a table. Or perhaps that was my impression because the intensity of the discussion blurred my understanding. It certainly was intense from start to finish or perhaps I felt it more as it was my particular and very problem that was being discussed, pulled apart. I was having a PhD interview at Chelsea the day after (the discussion helped very much) and felt I needed to be able to argue things well and be able to articulate complex thought.

The discussion went on without a problem and when we were wrapping up, ideas for the next session came up organically. I know, from further informal feedback, that the students now value the Drawing Reading Group sessions much more than before the Action Research project and have invited some of the other students (even if they are not research in the area of drawing) to join us at the next session, when we will be bringing our own sketchbooks (even if empty or embarrassing), our logs and a manual. We will be picking up things were we left, still trying to successfully combine image and text in a non-illustrative way and looking and how to display books.

Because the stage my research is at, it was almost impossible to find a solution to my problem. There were too many unknown quantities and everything was still at the planning stages. My questions were looking at outcomes, or ways of attaining outcomes. The discussion, however, was very fruitful to another one of our students, who also had a problem around displaying research through sketchbooks and got interested in the idea of a website as a means of dissemination. She had that gleam in the eye of an idea that clicks. And just to see that, it was worth it.