COP2: End Of Module Evaluation

Daniel Gilmartin

255740

OUIL501

Context Of Practice 2

Summative Evaluation

I found this years COP module to be once again really challenging, but more in terms of maintaining interest and momentum throughout the majority of the year.  I found all of the lectures this year really inspirational and felt a lot` more engaged with the topics. I gained my initial inspiration for my essay in the COP lecture about Identity and found the idea of cultural appropriation and the humour and irony that it often entails to be a really interesting topic, with loads of influential theorists. 

Prior to this, I really struggled with deciding on a theme for my essay. I began assessing my essay ideas against how much I'd enjoy responding to them visually, which I now appreciate was a mistake, and understand the importance of research and concepts driving my work. I feel that I chose my essay question quite late on in the year compared to everyone else, purely because of my lack of confidence in choosing a subject to stick with, which, at the time, made the seminars and study tasks really difficult to engage with. They helped me to develop more of an understanding of how to explore my theme visually however. Unfortunately, like last year I really struggled with the concept of speculative drawing, and found myself overthinking everything I was trying to draw - I feel that in the end it helped me slightly, and found that I gained alot more inspiration from talking to people, and discussions in seminars. This module has really made me think about identifying my genuine interests and passions, which is a definitely something I need to work on before third year.  

Once I had finally chosen a topic I felt passionately about, I found the research aspect really interesting, and started gathering and engaging with a variety of sources, which really helped to shape and drive my essay. I gained alot of insight in where to find sources and found some of the more unusual ones, for example youtube documentaries, alot more helpful. I also utilised the module resources in order to better my essay writing practice, which I feel definitely had a positive impact. In light of my essay, I'm quite confident that I was able to write a well rounded research paper, exploring numerous aspects relating to my theme. I feel that the initial study tasks really helped me get back into the swing of academic writing, and I'm also pleased that I was able to exercise my Harvard referencing skills again. 

Last year, the practical side of my COP submission was criticised for being too surface level, having not immersed myself enough into my chosen subject, which I completely agreed with. In light of that, my main focus this year was on choosing an aspect of my research and steering it away from my essay and developing it. When making the practical work, I had a huge concern that the subject matter was too closely related to my essay, which regrettably resulted in my practical and written work not achieving synthesis. I produced a lot of ideas for my practical work, which I feel I didn't explore thoroughly enough, mainly due to time management, which was a huge weakness in this module. I feel that my final practical work is effective in some ways, in terms of making images and communicating elements of my research. 

Overall this module has highlighted a few areas that I need to work on before I start my level 6 and my dissertation, including being decisive and sticking to something, and making your work interesting through researching it more. Also in terms of my practical presentation skills, I think there is a lot of room for improvement. I need to take a much more professional attitude to the way I ‘round off’ a project, including paying a lot more attention detail. Once again, time management was also a key factor which really tripped me up at certain times.

In order to prepare for level 6 and my dissertation, I really need to keep the momentum going that I’ve built up, and start thinking about research for my dissertation in a much more professional manner. I am now fully aware of how to use the Library resources, and I intend to make full use of them to benefit my ideas. I also would like to keep a sketchbook with me whenever I am researching, so I can keep the constant synthesised flow of information and images.