Personal Blogs

Miss Emin's messed bed,
and her father's sweaty shed-
happy memories

~ written by me in May 2010, following a visit to an art exhibit of some of Tracey Emin's work.

If art is a bird,
Its going to sit in a tree,
and crap on your head.

~ written by me May 2010

He sat there, bearded, bronzed and boozed,
Looking out to ocean.
The bench made of rough splintering wood,
he supped on his pint, twirls of velvet erupted around him.
That bitter sweet cankerous smell, swallowing in heady sumptuousness.

The sun low, glow, on the horizon.
Meandering with water and sparkling on flame,
His wisdom turns to me and smiles,
The boy hugs his arm and squeezes hard.
A limpet on an old steady bow.

The hot globe looses its battle with time,
A chill air comes, time conquers every moment.

Then today, the boy become man is hugged in return,
The old stern bow, now limpet ‘comes,
as the drip feeding poison into him saves his life.
Together they face times scythe, and together they conquer it with love.

~ written by me Jan 2011

I tend to leave blogging to others these days, preferring to work in an online study space on twitch:

https://www.twitch.tv/auld_wolf

Feel free to pop along, good vibes, lots of work and my home from home whilst studying or working on my own projects.

I submitted the final draft of my EMA for AA100 over the last weekend.

A full month early. But you know what I am so happy I did.

Its been a great journey this course, and one of the most valuable lessons I think I have learned is that I can pick and choose my own material that I desire to study.

I also feel very comfortable with note taking, confident about my ability to be able to write a coherent essay and argue my case using Socratic method.

On the journey I have discovered a love for Philosophy and fuller understanding of just 'what is' university level study.

There have been moments of sublime bliss (Cezanne, Benin) and others of real boredom (sorry Faraday!) but over all and in hindsight there was no part of the course that was not worth the time I devoted to it.

I felt I reached an important milestone with this course, I no longer have any reservations that I will be able to do all levels of the OU courses. The system is there to help, the tutors and teaching materials and aids first class and above all the HUGE community accessible via the Forums and extended community in Facebook and the Twittersphere add a dimension to studying at this level that I doubt 'brick' universities could even begin to create.

So taken by 'study' as a leisure activity, as well as pursuit for my own goals (I still want to be a teacher) - that I can see this never really going away. There is always new things to learn and new things to experience.

So thanks AA100 team, you have got me out of the starting blocks on a huge adventure.

I feel like I have been on a real journey with Book 2, I have learned so much that I feel that my brain has expanded!!

Recalling the journey from Plato, though the history of Christianity, Pugin’s role in the Gothic revival, and relating all of that within the brief history of Ireland was plain invigorating. The essay I did on Ireland was (I consider) my best work so far.

I have also started to use professional writing tools like Scrivener and I am able to do most referencing without having to think about it to hard. Furthermore I have really found a love for Philosophy; I am contemplating doing he A222 course on Philosophy at some point in the future.

The section on Music did not go so well for me, I think I rushed through it mainly because I found the subject matter difficult to approach. It’s down to musical interpretation more than anything else, I put it down to me being a more visual person than a aural one. But its equally possible that I just haven’t exercised that part of me much.

I was quite interested in how Shostakovich had used Jewish musical forms to dissent from the anti-Semitism he saw around him, and this I do understand and do comprehend well. But the musical form I found difficult to follow at times.

Overall I really feel great following the end of Book 2, quietly confident about the essay on Ireland I have submitted. I’m very much looking forward to the next part of the course dealing with Benin.. I have been looking forward to this part of the course since I first opened the course materials last August!!!

I see the two chapters, the first on the History of Christianity in England, and the revival of the gothic tradition and pugin, as being an extended chapter and so I will reflect on both now.

What is striking is the impact that first Henry VIII had and then the subsequent protestant rise has had, not only on the traditions of the old medieval church but also on the daily lives of people in England.

It is very clear that the lives of people before the reformation revolved around the church and the monasteries. Indeed the church was woven into the very fabric of everyday life.

The rise of the Methodist movement and the dissenting of people like Pugin were almost symptomatic of the reversal of all of that tradition f medieval life.

What is also clear is that Pugin’s efforts to revive gothic styles in England were extremely successful, the palace of Westminster and Westminster abbey dominate the ‘idea’ of Britain for most of the world, a style copied later for Tower Bridge. Therefore Pugin was very successful in promoting the gothic style as being ‘brutish’. Sadly his ideas that the space would influence people’s way of life was less successful, and the materialistic result of the industrial revolution is very clearly with us still.

Pugin’s reliance on Flemish and northern Germany for inspiration is also very interesting, since our ‘Britishness’ has been influenced so much on Germanic styles. What is similarly intriguing for me is that this has remained whilst the British have tried to erase other parts of our culture that were Germanic influenced as a result of the two world wars (e.g. the royal family not inhering the German names but changing them to the ‘made up’ Windsor name).

When you compare Pugin’s work of St’Chads in Birmingham with that of Lübeck or even Köln the similarities are very clear indeed, and only the limited budget and site (and you could conjecture, imagination of the brits!) have constrained Pugin. Indeed when he has been allowed to flourish (St.Giles) the results have been tremendous.

On reflection this has been a difficult and challenging section for me, Art History is not my strong point, and neither is my tolerance for Christian doctrine. However I feel I have overcome my difficulties quite well. Having read further forward in to the Irish section of the course, I can see how these three chapters dovetail very nicely indeed. Whilst I am happy that this part of the course is concluded, I did enjoy parts of Pugin, and I think I have a much better understanding of how architecture can relate to the ideas of tradition and dissenting cultural conflicts. I also have a far greater understanding than ever before of the differences between the Protestant and Catholic traditions of Christianity.

OK So first day of studying Faraday, and so far I'm finding it a little dry.

Its the first discussion where I did not really get the same thing as the author.

I left a note in the margin to revisit it, and also to re-read the Obit in a bit more depth. I don't think I was empathizing with either the author or the historical period properly.

I thought that the public would have made Faraday famous for the simple reason that they found his lectures entertaining, I didn't really think of the world accolades and house given by the queen as particularly relevant. But like I said I wasn't seeing things through victorian eyes.

I think it was more down to be a tad rusty after the break with study whilst I had the flu.

After that initial burst of activity that lasted a good solid four weeks. The flu got hold of me and I was off work for a week. Last week I was back at work but had a real loss of stamina. Thankfully I was ahead enough with the course to be able to absorb that. Today is the first day I have been able to sit in my study and start to focus. So Mr Faraday and I have had to wait a while to get to know each other.

Very much looking forward to the first group tutorial next week. I know we will be going over things I have already studied, but it will be good to meet up with folks with similar interests.

Having read through the assignments for AA100 I decided that trying to do DD101 in Jan would be a major mistake. So I have pulled out of that. It will add a year to getting the degree but needs must.

I have just reached the end of chapter 2 - Christopher Marlow: Doctor Faustus. So thought now would be a good time to recap over the start of this course and how I am progressing.

In general, I am now really happy I did the Y160 course, I have been able to apply the study diamond to the works in the Cleo chapter and did a full analysis of the relief, and I came to the same conclusions as the text. I put that down to the skills I picked up there.

The work on Cleo did not feel as indepth as the study which we did on Poetry in the first part of Y160, in fact so far the first two chapters have not been particularly challenging. I am certain this will change!!

The work on Marlowe feels a little ambiguous. I became a bit lost since I thought we were examining the text to try and see if we could get a view on Marlowe the man. What activities there were didn't get much deeper than 'effect' and 'techniques' briefly tocuhing on context but not in any depth. I am sure that this is more due to the Y160 course having done this already and this text is obviously aimed at people who would not necessarily have done Y160.

So far happy with the progress I am making, I am quite away ahead of where I need to be already, but this is no bad thing!!

After some thought, I have signed up to do DD101 from end of Jan onwards. That means I will be working through two courses at once. I am nervous about that since it did not work for me with before, but I have read alot about the course and understand it is as well put together as AA100 so I am less nervous!

So, so far, so good. Loving the course and really enjoying it. My only gripe is that (so far) there has been little detailed study of each area.

O x

General Feelings:

Very happy to have completed this part of the course. I think I have learned a lot in a short space of time.

The Study diamond is embeded in my head, and I find myself using it whenever looking at any art form now. Indeed on a recent trip to the Tate Britian, I found myself analysing Francis Bacon's works using the study diamond (in my head) and finding new insight into his works that I had never had before.

In addtion, I feel my appreciation of poetry has never been higher. I know I had major reservations about this part of the course. Poetry has never been something I have considered interesting. But that has changed now and I see poetry through new eyes.

It is a deep art form indeed.

The link to Buddhism for Haiku was unexpected and a joyful one for me (as a buddhist) and the penny dropped quickly about many of the links to impermanence and other buddhist concepts.

I have also become proficient at skim and close reading over the duration of part 2. And whilst my note taking skills were pretty good at the start of the course they are substantially improved as a result of part 2, and I have invested in a mind-mapping software which makes my scruffy handwritten notes look just lovely!.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the study of Haiku, I found it profoundly engaging; the works of Basho and Issa have found a new fan in me. And I'm very much looking forward now to trying my own hand at writing a few Haiku myself.