Emily Smith BA (Hons) Professional Practice, Arts and Creative Industries Blog

I have just submitted my artefact and essay I am overjoyed! Early... I know but I only had 2 free windows with reliable WiFi, today (4th) and as a back up Monday before the 10th deadline. I had a tutorial today with Helen she expressed that my explanation for my artefact was too long and that it should only consist of a small paragraph and the artefact should be self explanatory. So I had to do a last minute rewrite and just have confidence that my dance / choreography is self explanatory!  I also asked a few questions with regards to the presentations in January. Obviously we have to explain our topic of inquiry and then what we did during our project.  Helen said to mostly talk about what we have learnt as that's the main aim for these presentations.  It's good to speak about what will happen next and how we plan on developing our practice in the future too.  We will show our artefact during the presentation.  Helen said we should be talking for 20 minutes. If...

It's getting closer and closer to the deadline date and the stress levels are rising! I have been in a constant battle with Internet signal recently and feel like I am running out of time! Strangely, the essay seems to feel like it's in a good place which would normally be the hard part, however my motivation and creative flow for the artefact is coming in slowly! I have decided to make up a dance to represent my inquiry and time on this course, however I feel like I am having a choreographic block as I know I have to get this dance out and recorded before the 10th! It's like my brain and body are going against me!  Tomorrow is a new day and I have a tutorial on Friday so maybe this will make me feel more positive!  HOPE EVERYONE IS DOING WELL!!! 

This module have been overwhelming to say the least! I now realise how fortunate I was to start this course in the pandemic and have so much free time to focus on my work. This time round I am abroad in America, working a full time job, I have very limited wifi, I am also Injured and have had so many different distractions! I am proud that I have managed to find the time to do the work, I am just questioning if I've understood the task at hand and if it's to a good standard, but I guess that's what drafts are for! I have found analysing my data very hard! I understand what the data means to me, however getting it down on paper is much harder than I imagined! initially I was scared about interviewing people but that seems to have been the easy part!  I think at the end of the day we all need to remind ourselves that this Inquiry wasn't to solve anything or prove something right or wrong it is to develop our practice and have a greater understanding of our professional fi...

Some important points I got from this Zoom discussion… It was a small discussion with just 2 of us attending, which was beneficial as Helen asked us questions and we were encouraged to talk. I had a realisation that I think I was going down the trap of using literature to prove or disprove what my participants thoughts and then telling my opinion… So here are some useful points I wrote down in my note book… …. Be mindful of thinking that observations are themes Themes are things that come up many times over the data collected the literature and your experiences Don’t use the literature to prove or reject things. Don’t think of it a scientific report as this is irrelevant to an artistic research project. Use literature to raise more questions / bring in other discussions and perspectives. We spoke about reflecting and bringing yourself into the project and not just getting swamped in literature and your data collection Did anything go against your assumptions? What challenged your assum...

I have now conducted all 6 interviews and honestly it has left me with more questions than what I feel like have been answered... I guess it was never the aim to answer our inquiry and our supervisors have always emphasised this, but now I feel like I have so much more that I need to research or it has given me new questions that I could start completely separate research projects about.  I was shocked that everyones answers were so different and so different to my own perspective on ‘ how does social media effect a professional dancers body image’. Potential themes that have reoccured that now I am going to find new literature on are… Pressure    -Pressure with Dance specific body image   -Pressure to promote / market themselves online  The words  FIT a nd  ATHLETIC   came up multiple times Filter     -Filtering what you view online. All my participants said that they really carefully consider what types of accounts that...

My topic of research is focussed on body image and social media. I found this so interesting and wanted to share it on my blog.... Loose Women Body Stories Campaign  I am posting this blog in module 3, however I wrote this during my hotel quarantine after coming home from red list Brasil on the 17th of May 2021. Since choosing my topic of ‘How does social media effect a professional dancers body image”, with such a relevant, poignant subject in the 21st century with the boom and obsession with social media I am regularly seeing articles and information all the time about social media, editing photos and body image. Which is highlighting how big of an issue in the 21st century this is becoming!   The campaign poster shows all the loose women looking happy and confident in their natural bodies in various swimming costumes and bikinis, showing diversity and inclusion. Its what I would describe a ‘real’ looking photo.   Plymouth Live, 2021. Loose Women Body Stories Campaign ....

I just finished my first module 3 tutorial with my supervisor.  Things are starting to feel very real and time is starting to pass  quicker  than I could have imagined! Firstly we discussed that I want to change my data collection method slightly to face-to-face interviews, due to the change of my circumstances to me now living onboard a cruise ship and the lack of stable internet which comes with it!  I don’t think it would be wise for me to schedule interviews on zoom and then have a faulty connection and waste my participants time. Also now I have colleagues onboard with me that fit my research criteria, therefore I now wish to interview them. I will have to write about these changes in my final write up. I also asked about the literature review and it was said that it should be in more depth than the module 2 literature review by going in deeper with a few select texts that are relevant to our research. It was also stated that we might end up doing further resear...

6th Setpember 2021 (12pm) Zoom Welcome Meeting 1 Today I participated in my first group Zoom of module 3. It was a good feeling to be back and to see some familiar faces and also welcome the new module 1’s to the course. Surprisingly my wifi held up and I was able to clearly hear the discussion! So yey!  Helen gave us a reminder tour of the uni hub and we had a meet and greet with some of the uni staff and course students. One reflection that I did make was how comfortable I felt in the zoom and I remembered how confused and uncomfortable I felt this time last year as a module 1 and how far I have come since then! So any module 1 students reading this… I promise it gets much easier and will eventually all make sense! Helen discussed the 3 pillars of support from the course  Course Handbook Module Handbooks Supervisor  Helen described the supervisor role as a 'critical friend'. Something I didn’t make the most of in module 1 was my supervisions with Helen, but in modul...

WELCOME BACK!  WELCOME TO MODULE 3! My life has changed considerably since module 1 and 2 and I am back to somewhat normality and am currently working as a Dance Captain on Royal Caribbeans Freedom of the Sea’s again! I love my job but it comes with some added stresses so I am going to have to be extremely organised with my time and how I am handling my work / uni / downtime balance! But don’t get me wrong I am absolute ecstatic to be back on the stage performing! But this will be a challenge so lets go! To any module 1s and a reminder to other modules I am part of the student voice programme with Chloe (mod 3) and Logan (mod 2) so please contact us if you have anything that you wish us to voice :) I did a blog at the end of module 2 with some hints and tips for module 2s just starting out if anyone wants to check it out …. Module 3 does feel quite intimidating. I must admit I have tried to read the handbook multiple times over the summer to try and prepare myself for what is to co...

I cannot believe I am typing this!  I  HAVE FINISHED MODULE 2! Obviously results pending… But I feel like I have gotten to the top of a very large mountain! I am ahead of the deadline but thats because I have a lot going on in the next few weeks that I wanted to be worry free! I feel like I have been really academically challenged this module. Firstly from one essay and an artefact in module 1, to 3 essays in module 2, the work load and thinking process has been much more intense in this module (as expected).  Going into this module I really had no idea about research methods and certainly found it overwhelming to think about creating a whole research proposal! But step by step, lots and lots of reading and discussion I got there haha! (again results pending from the more form and the portfolio!) Advice I would give students going into module 2 would be… -Trust the process, it’s going to be very uncomfortable at the start and you all get lost more than once! -Pick a focus...

Todays Skype discussed 3 themes 1. Collaboration 2. Communication and Language  3. Risk Taking Sam lead tonights discussion and explained the three themes above in relation to his professional practice and linked them to working in his band. I thought about how I use these three themes in my personal professional practice. Collaboration  “Collaboration is the act of working together, especially on a goal or shared project. It can also be used to refer to a product of collaboration, as in The new single is a  collaboration from the two pop stars.  Collaboration is the noun form of the verb collaborate , meaning to work together.” As a dancer I may collaborate with someone to create a piece of choreography. This could be with another dancer or I could be creating with a musician or a director. We collaborate ideas and material all the time in the industry when creating shows. Often I am asked to choreograph some free lifts or ‘freestyle’ in sections of shows and I will...

Interviews? Yesterday module 2 had a really insightful discussion session with supervisor Sam Murray who specialises in ethnographic research. Below are some of the key points that Sam raised in the discussion for anyone that missed it! Also this will be helpful to revisit and reflect on when we are in module 3 and actually have to create our interview questions!!! (dun dun duuuuuunnnn!!!!!!!- This scares me haha) Sams Interview Hints and Tips -In an interview think of being a data collection computer, you want to take in lots of information and learn new things! -Don’t ask leading questions and don’t have a fixed idea. You want to be open and use broad questions to get as much out of the discussion. Don’t force your opinion. -Let the data speak for its self  -In an interview you will always be surprised by peoples answers, so don’t presume what they are going to say. -You are collecting peoples stories -Create a set of questions that are open and that you feel confident asking! -W...