Monday, January 29, 2007
Closura
So the day of the highly anticipated assessment finally arrived on the 24th January. Kirsite and I had no idea what to expect, and in the lead up were forever fishing for little snippets of information and advice from everywhere we could get it… ‘You must defend your corner’ Daniela told us, our German fine art friend who was relaying hints from her Czech boyfriend, ‘the jury will attack, be prepared.’! Be prepared? This was the one piece of advice I had no idea how to act on.
What little we were told was that the Closura is an open assessment, anyone from the public can come and listen. Anyone can ask questions and get involved. You have to speak briefly about your concept and then answer any questions. This is very unlike what I am used to in Leeds. In Leeds I put all my work into a room, leave it there for about a week and then return to find it seemingly untouched. I receive some feed back, but there is nothing really expected of my verbally.
A week before the assessment we went to see our troublesome tutor, Josef, to show him our work for the assessment (I say troublesome, but since writing this he has changed somewhat and has become far more useful). Having only shown him a fraction of what I had done, he was satisfied that only that would be enough. Again, differing from Leeds where we are expected to show EVERYTHING we have done.
Our assigned time was to be at 8am on the Wednesday morning. Therefore we came in the day before to put all our work up. This was a laborious job. Merely trying to get Josef to tell me what he thought I should hang took over an hour, and then the actual hanging… Where? And how? Were the next two tiresome questions. But finally with some help from the other students and some tactfully appropriated yellow tac, my work was finally up and ready for the onslaught. I forgot to mention, there was an added obstacle that day. The clouds decided to open and a foot of snow fell in a few hours. It made getting into the studio an unexpected assault course.
So finally the morning arrived. The jury slowly appeared, a real mixed bag. The Czech students went first and read off scraps of paper before being heavily questioned about their work. I was desperately trying to decipher the mood of the discussion. However having concluded they were going from bad too worse, I was pleased to be told that they were actually doing quite well.
Coming to the end of the Czech students presentations, I was suddenly confronted by Blaroslav (our tutors best friend, and quite accomplished in English) to explain my ideas so that he could translate them to the jury. I tried to explain in the few moments we had, I don’t know if I succeeded. The Jury were on their way over…
I was relaxed by the fact that I was sure none of the jury would have any idea what I was talking about. Although there were a lot of people there, I was confident that hardly any of them would really bother trying to listen to me. Blaroslav was there, translating what I was saying, but still there was a sea of blank faces in front of me. I finished my explanation, and then silence followed. Josef had a few things to say, none of which I understood. Then the jury thanked me, and moved on. I stood there completely confused by what had just taken place.
I found out later that I had got an A. Co?
What little we were told was that the Closura is an open assessment, anyone from the public can come and listen. Anyone can ask questions and get involved. You have to speak briefly about your concept and then answer any questions. This is very unlike what I am used to in Leeds. In Leeds I put all my work into a room, leave it there for about a week and then return to find it seemingly untouched. I receive some feed back, but there is nothing really expected of my verbally.
A week before the assessment we went to see our troublesome tutor, Josef, to show him our work for the assessment (I say troublesome, but since writing this he has changed somewhat and has become far more useful). Having only shown him a fraction of what I had done, he was satisfied that only that would be enough. Again, differing from Leeds where we are expected to show EVERYTHING we have done.
Our assigned time was to be at 8am on the Wednesday morning. Therefore we came in the day before to put all our work up. This was a laborious job. Merely trying to get Josef to tell me what he thought I should hang took over an hour, and then the actual hanging… Where? And how? Were the next two tiresome questions. But finally with some help from the other students and some tactfully appropriated yellow tac, my work was finally up and ready for the onslaught. I forgot to mention, there was an added obstacle that day. The clouds decided to open and a foot of snow fell in a few hours. It made getting into the studio an unexpected assault course.
So finally the morning arrived. The jury slowly appeared, a real mixed bag. The Czech students went first and read off scraps of paper before being heavily questioned about their work. I was desperately trying to decipher the mood of the discussion. However having concluded they were going from bad too worse, I was pleased to be told that they were actually doing quite well.
Coming to the end of the Czech students presentations, I was suddenly confronted by Blaroslav (our tutors best friend, and quite accomplished in English) to explain my ideas so that he could translate them to the jury. I tried to explain in the few moments we had, I don’t know if I succeeded. The Jury were on their way over…
I was relaxed by the fact that I was sure none of the jury would have any idea what I was talking about. Although there were a lot of people there, I was confident that hardly any of them would really bother trying to listen to me. Blaroslav was there, translating what I was saying, but still there was a sea of blank faces in front of me. I finished my explanation, and then silence followed. Josef had a few things to say, none of which I understood. Then the jury thanked me, and moved on. I stood there completely confused by what had just taken place.
I found out later that I had got an A. Co?
Olomouc
After the assessment I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders, and my German friend Anne suggested at the perfect moment that I should go to Olomouc with her for a few days. Olomouc is town about 1½ hours north of Brno. People had told me that it was a pleasant place to visit, and I have been keen to see more of the Czech Republic and stop being tempted by all my surrounding countries.
We rendezvoused there, Anne having travelled from Pardubice. And we soon checked into the very homely and friendly Poets corner Hostel. Lovely place. In fact that very evening the staff kindly invited us out with them, to see some very good, very cheap, live jazz at the ‘Jazz Tibet Club’. It was a great evening.
Anne in soaking up the sun
Olomouc is a lovely small town, with a very impressive main square. It has something of Krakow about it. The surrounding town is full of parks and lots of narrow roads very reminiscent of Prague. There is also an astronomical clock to rival Prague’s, it has the added novelty of showing all the name days of the year. There is a good art gallery, two thumbs up from me, and there is a nice café culture. The big university attracts lots of students, which means there are lots of cool bars. Sadly when Anne and I were visiting it was absolutely freezing. There was lots of snow, which enhanced the beauty of the town, but the cold meant that we couldn’t wander, as we would have liked. Instead we spent hours and hours in cafes nattering away about all sorts of rubbish, my kind of holiday.
Here's the Astronomical clock dad!
We rendezvoused there, Anne having travelled from Pardubice. And we soon checked into the very homely and friendly Poets corner Hostel. Lovely place. In fact that very evening the staff kindly invited us out with them, to see some very good, very cheap, live jazz at the ‘Jazz Tibet Club’. It was a great evening.
Anne in soaking up the sunOlomouc is a lovely small town, with a very impressive main square. It has something of Krakow about it. The surrounding town is full of parks and lots of narrow roads very reminiscent of Prague. There is also an astronomical clock to rival Prague’s, it has the added novelty of showing all the name days of the year. There is a good art gallery, two thumbs up from me, and there is a nice café culture. The big university attracts lots of students, which means there are lots of cool bars. Sadly when Anne and I were visiting it was absolutely freezing. There was lots of snow, which enhanced the beauty of the town, but the cold meant that we couldn’t wander, as we would have liked. Instead we spent hours and hours in cafes nattering away about all sorts of rubbish, my kind of holiday.
Here's the Astronomical clock dad!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Back in Czech land
I thought that I would post an amazing picture that the visiting Rich took whilst we were hanging out in Prague. To all those who doubted I could fly!
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