Stone Kicking

PHO740

PHO740: Collaboration and Professional Locations

Collaboration and Professional Locations is one of the three ‘middle’ or ‘carousel’ modules in the research and development stage of the course. It runs during the third Study Block (September – January) each year.  

The module will increase your understanding and appreciation of the roles, relationships, and responsibilities that can play a major part in progressing and sustaining your professional practice. As part of this, you will be encouraged to undertake commissions and work placements during this module, and to devise or engage in photography and visual arts initiatives relevant to your work. You’ll also have the opportunity to collaborate on a live brief with a small group of peers. These briefs will be set by clients and allow you to gain experience with real world, industry challenges. 

Focus

Module Aim

The module enables you to collaborate on creative projects and operate professionally within the creative industries. It aims to identify appropriate audiences and potential markets for the consumption of your practice.

Learning Outcomes

The following course Learning Outcomes are assessed during this module: 

  • LO1. PROCESS: Negotiate photographic and lens-based imaging techniques according to self-initiated objectives. (Work in Progress Portfolio)
  • LO2. RESEARCH: Determine appropriate research methods and methodologies to develop, produce, inform and critically underpin your creative practice. (Work in Progress Portfolio, Critical Report)
  • LO6. COLLABORATION: Plan and critically evaluate collaborative workflows and practices. (Critical Report)

Module Themes

During the module, you will explore the following topics and themes:  

  • Collaboration in Practice
  • Archive and Authorship
  • Collaboration and Environments
  • Engaging the Audience
  • Sharing your Work
  • Promoting your Work

During the module you will also have the opportunity to work on a live brief, provided by an potential clients. In past years we have collaborated with Oxfam, Headway East London, City ID, Wellcome Photography Prize and Contrapol/Shift F7, Royal Photographic Society, Bristol Museum & Gallery. 

You will be working in groups of 6 – 10 students on one of the briefs provided to produce a pitch which you will then deliver live, to the chosen client, usually in Week 9 of the module.  

This is an excellent opportunity to create work for a internationally recognised institution, to network, learn how to create a pitch and gain new skills as well as collaborate with your peers.  

Assignments

The two assignments that you must successfully complete to pass the module: 

1. Work in Progress Portfolio  

https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1241/assignments/4117

A cohesive portfolio containing practical work on your research project made during this module. This will be accompanied by a statement of intent that presents your research project up to this point. 

  • Learning Outcomes assessed: 1 and 2 
  • Weighting: 60% of the module assessment 
  • Submitted 11th December by 12.00 10 WEEKS FROM 2ND OCTOBER
  •  This assignment will be assessed on the following course Learning Outcomes:
    • LO1 Process Negotiate photographic and lens-based imaging techniques according to self-initiated objectives.
    • LO2 Research Determine appropriate research methods and methodologies to develop, produce, inform and critically underpin your creative practice
  • The Work in Progress Portfolio is weighted at 60% of the module assessment.

Timeframe
The work you present in your WIPP can only have been made during the study block (or module) which it is being assessed in, plus the preceding assessment period. E.g. for Informing Contexts, which runs throughout Study Block 2 (end of January – end of April), you can include work made from mid-December.

Submission of work that has already been assessed during another module on your course will be treated as academic misconduct.  

(On the MA, your Final Major Project submitted at the very end of the MA programme can include work made at any point during the course.)

Cohesion
Irrespective of whether you are working on a single project throughout the carousel modules, or working on three discrete projects in this period, there should be aesthetic consistency in the each of your WIPPs: The set of images should feel like a single body of work, by one practitioner; not an eclectic, haphazard mix of photographs. This is not a ‘portfolio’ in a commercial sense whereby you may well be trying to exhibit the diversity of your skills or fluency with different subjects.

Q. How do I combine walking shots and collaborative shots and make them cohesive?

A.

Break Points
On the MA, if you are working on a single project during the carousel modules, perhaps with the intention of following this into the FMP module, your WIPPs may be considered ‘break points’ in this larger project. If this is the case, ensure you still bear in mind the above point regarding ‘cohesion’.  

As the title suggest, ‘.. in progress‘ is a key expectation: we are not anticipating a finished, fully resolved body of work. But your WIPP will ideally be demonstrating growing sophistication and refinement within your visual practice.    

Quantity
The WIPP should represent the culmination of 12 – 15 weeks of practical work. How many images this may amount to very much depends on the nature of your project and how you work: Someone working with tableaux, or a very time-consuming production method, would present fewer finished images than might be expected from someone who is working in a more reportage/documentary manner.

Editing
Your WIPP should demonstrate discernment in how you edit and sequence your work to convey your intended meaning (‘self-initiated objectives’ – MA LO1). Ensure you make the most of opportunities to share draft edits of your WIPPs with peers and/or your Tutor. It is vital to get fresh, alternative perspectives on which images to include or exclude from an edit or sequence of your work. Unless it is part of a deliberate strategy, avoid repetition or duplication of (similar) images.

Submission
Usually, you will only be able to submit a PDF. This PDF could contain the work itself, or it could contain a link to an online location for your work, e.g. a web gallery, video streaming platform, electronic photobook etc.

Always refer to the Assignment Brief in your module to ensure you have the most up to date information about the required format for your WIPP.

‘Online’ vs. ‘Offline’ submission
You may already have a preferred way of presenting your work (i.e. as a static PDF or web gallery). There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach, which will depend on the nature of your project. We do encourage you to try new ways of working and experiment with your method of presentation. But bear in mind this may ‘backfire’ if you make a misjudgement: mediocre photography can look much better with strong presentation, and great photography can be wrecked with poor design! Seek feedback and advice from peers and/or your tutor before submitting.  

In any case, it is important that your work can be viewed at a reasonable scale (i.e. c.4000 pixels along the longest edge) and is not overly compressed. You are advised to share your final version of your WIPP with peers ahead of submission to ensure it is displaying as you intend it to.  

Text and Contextualisation
It is important that, as best you can, your sequencing of images, titles, captions and ‘Statement of Intent’ sufficiently conveys the intended meaning and narrative of your work. (If text is relevant to the work, such as interviews with subjects or images of documents, this is fine to include.) Further efforts to provide a rationale, justification, analysis or commentary of your practice/WIPP will be disregarded. If assessors require further contextualisation for your WIPP, this is usually presented in supporting/ contextual assignments.

Statement of Intent
This should succinctly and clearly contextualise your practical work, conveying how you intend an audience to engage with, or understand, your work in your WIPP. The Statement of Intent is very much about your work and not you: it is not a generalised ‘artist’s statement’ or biography and should not aim to hyperbolise the work, but simply to intelligently and accessibly outline what it is supposed to be about. You do not need to make use of the full extent of the word count, but you must not exceed it. 

2. Critical Report

https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1241/assignments/4118

A document that evaluates collaborative practices relating to your specialism. This document may critically reflect upon your activities within the module’s live brief challenge, or it may examine specific collaborative methodologies elsewhere within the industry.

 

Write a critical evaluation of collaborative methodologies that relate to your research and practice specialism.

This document should integrate theoretical and practical aspects of photography and visual culture: it should discuss these in relation to the specific collaborative methodologies involved in the making and realisation of your own practical work.

If relevant, this document may critically reflect upon your activities within the module’s live brief activity.

Assignment Guidelines

Your Critical Report submission should be:

  • A colour, page numbered, PDF document maximum 2,500 words (excluding bibliography)
  • 1.5 line spaced and use a 12 point, sans serif font
  • Fully Harvard referenced throughout
  • All images / figures should be numbered and fully titled
  • The file size should be a maximum of 15MB

The quality of your presentation will be considered in the assessment of your submission

  • Learning Outcomes assessed: 2 and 6 
  • Weighting: 40% of the module assessment 
  • Submitted 11th December by 12.00 
  • Submitted 11th December by 12.00 10 WEEKS FROM 2ND OCTOBER
  • Your Critical Report is assessed on the following course Learning Outcomes:
    • LO2 Research Determine appropriate research methods and methodologies to develop, produce, inform and critically underpin your creative practice.
    • LO6 Collaboration Plan and critically evaluate collaborative workflows and practices.
  • This assignment is weighted at 40% of the module assessment.