Organizing the Thesis/portfolio

I went and bought a large table, put it in the spare room. This is my thesis writing place. Of course I could not organize the 100 +pages that are in the 2nd half of the thesis. I'm visual, and having them in the computer was beginning to freak me out. So, I put them on the wall. I am now cutting them up and re arranging them or changing them entirely. Just part 2, I have not revised part 1 yet.

Wow, I have heard so much about portfolios.

Some of it has been through my facebook page. I suppose because it is public there it is o.k. to share it here. IF anyone does object I will take their comment down. But how inspiring this has been.

I posted this on my blog and these were some of the responses.

Fellow student

No, no, no. Cutting each page in half, throwing it up in the air and reassembling would be so much more fun: construction, deconstruction, reconstruction. :)

Another fellow student

Don't worry it's not all for naught! I promise. Save it and watch how you'll use it later. It's frustrating as all hell before that though! Hugs! Miss you! :)

My response

linka was telling me there was a portfolio that was created so that each page was individual, that if you did throw it up in the air it would not matter the order it came back down in. Who was that? I wish I could see it. hmmm going to not look at original and think about reorganizing and new thoughts. Step away from what was done, do something else and see how to put the two together. thanks guys

Another fellow student

I started this way too - I went from 300 pages to 175 not including my title and contents pages. You will get it just how you want it.

Another student

Bridgette--the portfolio that you're referring to was Lisa Strier's. And it is a thing of beauty!

Lisa replies

you are a lovely woman! ( to the student above) thanks! Bridgette Mongeon-- The clearest MFA-IA advice I ever received was from Pete Hocking--the Goddard program is NOT your practice, packets and portfolios are not your practice, they are merely guides for developing & exploring your work/practice. Your portfolio is the work YOU do/how YOU do it-- YOUR practice in the format of a thesis. If you think about the portfolio as holding a space for someone to enter/interact with your work in the way that your work/practice does, it can help your own portfolio process. You can access my portfolio download online here:http://mfacamp.blogspot.com/2010/11/culminating-semester-portfolio.html. (& if you scrambled my portfolio pages, it could be a coherent document, but would offer a different experience/flow than how I crafted it.)

Peter states-

Pete Hocking Tara Rebele, who graduated some time ago, built a portfolio that was all one-page performance scripts. She subsequently had much of it published in the book, And I'm Not Jenny (http://tinyurl.com/3zach7w).

Thanks for the nice shout out, Lisa Strier! The portfolio is always the most interesting when it's the embodiment and enactment of one's practice (as a creative act).

And I'm Not Jenny

www.amazon.com

Who is "Jenny"? Well, who isn't she? Tara Rebele, in her debut, crafts a series of alternately defiant, sublime, racy and hilarious monologues in the latest hybrid text in the Slope Editions catalog. Prosaic, poetic and rooted in the performance arts, this book promises to help redefine "feminism...

Another student

Hey, I'm reading that book as we speak. Thanks Karen Bunch!!!!!

Bridgette Mongeon wow Lisa this is an incredible portfolio. love the design. I feel so inadequate but inspired at the same time. Incredible.

SO THIS IS WHAT I HAVE FOUND OUT

Lisa's portfolio is excellent and inspiring. I have seen so many people use the portfolio as another piece of expression, another piece of art.

How can i look at what Lisa has done, what Rick and Erica have told me. How can I make more reflection showing work, but less about "what I did" more about "what I learned?"

I wish I had this blog before I started my portfolio!

So, I have my first draft back and am working diligently on it. Looking at my track changes and my advisors letter.

HINT!

MORE REFLECTION

LESS COLLECTION!

It is easy to write what you did, but be sure you look at what you learned and focus on that. In my opinion, and from what I am learning from this portfolio writing process, that is what they are after. Part of me wants to scrub what I have done, take all of the work, throw it in a gallery in the back of the portfolio and redo it.

Instead this is what I am doing.

Going through each of my self evals from each semester. What makes me excited? What were the true questions and lessons in that semester?

I'm about to put those as sticky notes on my wall, by semester. The lessons.

I have highlighted the things in my bib. IT IS SO GOOD TO HAVE A GOOD ANNOTATED BIB! Crap, I couldn't remember what half of these things are, if I did not have a good bib. G1 seems so long ago.

And instead of what I did, I'm going to reorganize into the lessons.

MFA-IA portfolio - artist statement? new addendum or old?

After having lunch with someone who graduated two residencies ago there seemed to be some discrepancy in what is expected in an artist statement. She said it is not a typical artist statement and she had to reflect on her work in comparison to her peers. Seems like a strange thing to put in an artist statement. Then I went back to the addendum
Do I read this correctly?

The new addendum states

Artist Statement

This is a concise introduction of yourself as an artist to your communities. Here you communicate your passions, highlighting the aspects of your practice that are most important to you. You may choose to mention specific projects, significant themes or issues in your work, the expressive forms you practice, as well as the critical and/or artistic contexts in which you place yourself.

The old addendum states.

This is about you as an artist. Introduce yourself to a general public - this statement may also serve in your professional career, so you want to present yourself and your work with accuracy, yet positively; you want to do justice to your strengths as a practicing artist. This statement is also the place where you locate yourself within the larger context of contemporary art, defining the major trends to which your work is related giving credit to the artists who have influenced you, attaching yourself to a lineage of other artists.

Now, frankly I like the new addendum -artist statement, it seems like we do enough of locating ourselves in within the larger context of contemporary art within the portfolio. Who wants to have a bunch of other artists reflected in their artist statement? If this has been deleted, which I hope it has, I am glad. I do need further clarification.

I need more words!

I told my advisor that I go down to look at the black books and write down words. She looked at me funny- like I was somehow cheating, though she never said that. It would otherwise be called building your vocabulary! Besides, as a writer I find words fascinating. Though I get bored with some that I use over and over again.

As I write my portfolio I get tired of saying I explored or studied.

Here are some synonyms

explored

analyze, burrow, delve into, dig examine,go a look, hunt, iinto, inspect,

leave no unturned, look probe,prospect, question, reconnoitre, research,

scout,scrutinize, search, seek, sift, test, tour, travel,traverse, try, turn inside out

Study-

comparison, concentration, consideration,contemplation,

debate,deliberation, examination, exercise, inquiry,inspection, investigation, lesson,

meditation, muse, musing,,questioning, reading, reasoning,

reflection,research, reverie, review, scrutiny, subject, survey,

thought,trance, weighing

MFA-IA portfolio - on to the introduction

So, I mentioned many other resources that talk to you about introductions to a thesis.

Here is another I found that I like

USA term papers

I like that it talks about:

Give reasons of your particular topic selection

List your sources of research

Give argument which you will discuss further in your art thesis paper

I have been saying that being in graduate school is all about defending your art. O.k. this site says "persuading others" or "academic argument." That is the problem with graduate study. I don't want to argue anything I want to create art and explore. Guess "persuasion" sounds more civil than defend.

this page from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill talks about writing a thesis statement "After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you'll make in the rest of your paper."

Going back to the paper on How to Write Your Thesis from Columbia University to pull together my introduction

As my advisor says 1 could be changed to why interdisciplinary art?

2 could be about what brought you to this practice.

ok. I know all of this probably doesn't make any sense, but keep reading it and writing until something becomes cohesive.

MFA-IA portfolio - artist statement

As I told my advisor this is hard for me for two reasons-

1. I feel I have already said it in my introduction. ( I guess that means it is time to cut and rearrange things.)

2. I am both a writer and an artist. Do I write about both?

So here are some links to pages about artist statements.

Molly Gordon has a good page to get you thinking.

That will get you going

How about How to write an artist statement that doesn't suck. By Hanna Piper Burns.

If you google artist statements you may come up with this rather funny video-

See more on artist statements and addendum

not mfa-ia portfolio related but cool stuff.

I appears that some students have their packet work online. I suppose this is meant for anyone so here is Rod's G2

MFA-IA portfolio - ANY OF THESE ONLINE?

I wish there were more portfolio's online. Or I wish I could sit with a few in the basment of the the library. Alas the school library is much to far away. It will be great when the portfolios are available online.

Until then...anyone have theirs out there that they want to share?

I have found one by Monta Gae May feb 2007 as a pdf. It is titled "Life Weaves its Way- A Cloth is Made From Many Threads

and another I found Mapping the Trembling Paradox of Essence by Meg McHutchison MFA-IA July 2006

No more-unless someone out there has information I don't know about.

MFA-IA portfolio- conclusion- "BLA, BLA, BLA, BLA"

So when I sent my first packet in to my instructor I ran out of words, literally ran out of things to say by the time I got to the conclusion of my first draft of my portfolio/thesis.

In her reply, her track changes state.

"You’ll need a fuller conclusion, but that can come between packets 2 and 3. "

She did not note that I had skipped several lines and wrote

"BLA, BLA, BLA, BLA"

---

She writes in her notes:

Oh, well there it is…the fuller conclusion J

It made me laugh!

Which is a good thing at this stage of the game!

MFAI-IA portfolio thesis- abstract?

I'm not sure I liked the description and thought process of the last article I recommended- especially as it came to writing an abstract.

Maybe this one will help

How to Write an Abstract

Philip Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University
October, 1997

MFA-IA portfolio tips- structure?

Most of this can be found in our MFA-IA addendum under Portfolio writing.

But my instructor sent some great resources. Columbia University had this website on How To Write a Thesis that talks about the parts of a thesis. Our portfolio/thesis is different, but my advisor pointed out these sections.

Introduction

She also stated, time to differentiate between What am I attached to, and focus instead on what does my reader need to know?

UGGG onward.

MFA-IA portfolio tips- Track changes

I created my document in Scrivener. I thought it was great to have this program and if you are going to use it, it is very inexpensive, learn it before your G5. However doing track changes is helpful, scrivener does this but trying to go back and forth between scrivener and word now that the document is written is going to be a bit much, so I am going to keep it in word from here forward. My advisor suggested I print out the changes. Needed to learn to do that and found this.

10 Proven Tips for Working around the Shortcomings of Word’s Track Changes

however this document seems to be for the pc.

David Bilinsky

Beware of Track Changes in Word…

with further investigation I guess I can't print out just the track changes from my advisor.

MFAIA- Portfolio hints and helps- analyze and Interpret

These next blog posts are for the use of myself and those writing a portfolio. I sent my first draft in, Packet 1- thought it was pretty good, had the jist of what I wanted it to say and got my revisions back. As my advisor said this can feel like a daunting task for some. I am used to writing and revision and editors so we will see.

There are bound to be lots of hints that I wish I had before I started and that I am learning now. That is what these next posts will be. They will be fast and furious posts because I am trying to do three weeks of school work in 5 days. I'm doing this because I have a huge project that came into my art studio and will take up 3 full weeks of time and I don't want to be late on packet 2, especially in this portfolio semester. So, my focus is on portfolio for long hours. Wish me luck.

Some things I am learning.

Most people plop there stuff into their portfolio from their packet work. I suppose it is a good way to start, but it will mean lots of revisions.

The words that come to me are "unpack it, unapck it, unpack it" I am sure you ahve heard this mantra before. It is coming back and screaming at me now.

As I proceed with my first set of revision my adivosor said, gdo them step by step baragraph by paragraph or as Anne lammotte said, Bird by bird!

Though I have read through all of the ideas and comments in bed this morning. Some made me want to stand up on the edge of my bed and say, "what is she talking about, I did just that, and this is how I did it!" I'll think about that statement and see if that is really what I did before screaming it in a repsonce letter. She has said these are suggestions and not directives. That is good to know, and that is what I expected. We are in graduate school to learn how to defend and back up our practice, not the berst words to use but I am certain

My Mantra, which I'm about to define and put up above my new working desk specifically created for this protfolio is Interpret and Analyze. Here is a jpg so you can print this out and hang it on your desk, like I have mine.

to help me to think here is an online defition

Interpret

Definition interpret (verb)

-to decide what the intended meaning of something is
-to express your own ideas about the intended meaning of a play or a piece of music when performing it
-to change what someone is saying into another language

Synonyms for interpret (verb)

take * , gather , mimic , perform , clarify , understand , fathom , read , define , delineate , adapt , teach , do , enact , solve , render , illuminate , annotate , construe , decipher , describe , elucidate , explicate , expound , illustrate , paraphrase , spell out , translate , recite , state , play , portray , represent , illume , exemplify , treat , improvise , elaborate , depict , image , limn , picture , gloss , view , diagnose , comment , commentate , decode , throw light on , make of , reenact , simplify , transcribe , clear the air , decrypt

analyze

Definition analyze (verb)

break down to components

Synonyms for analyze (verb)

go over , decompose , dissolve , edit , digest , review , check , classify , prove , break up , separate , divide, cut up , dissect , canvass , clarify , think , conclude , determine , resolve , inquire , compare , scrutinize , disintegrate , construe , decipher , detail , identify , test , winnow , distinguish , consider , go into , brainstorm , ratiocinate , deduce , weigh , lay bare , sift , explore , research , peruse , diagnose , individualize , proofread , simplify , analogize , anatomize , decompound , electrolyze , hydrolyze , parse , x-ray , enquire , experiment