伦敦艺术大学北京硕士预科课程-学生反馈

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★潘玥含，被伦敦艺术大学切尔西艺术学院纯艺术硕士课程录取

访谈实录：What I have learnt on the UAL MA PRE course

• 1. Has this course helped you develop a critical thinking method and an English vocabulary to go with it? How?
• Yes. When I look at an artist, I could look at in these ways——its image, skills, behavior, reputation, beliefs, values, which means each art work has its own context, and critical thinking is based on the context. We had a lot of conversation about exhibitions and artists to practice ‘ critical thinking ’, which requires a certain art vocabulary, and it is really helpful——the conversations are real.
• 2. Have you learned how to analyze and discuss the work of others? Your own work?
• Yes. When I look at someone’s work I would firstly read the brief introduction, so I could get a overall context of his/her work. Then the discussion is based on specific questions, different people would have distinct perspectives, and that’s why communication happens.
• 3.What was your favorite part of the course? Not so favorite?
• I really enjoy the arrangement of the whole course——like a journey. The course is focused on ‘methodology’ instead of ‘content’. We would go to exhibitions, look at artists’ documentaries, read philosopher’s quotes, and talk about these. And after class we can go to read the whole history or anything we need and interested in to take the theme further. What I dislike is people always arrive late and delay the course. Dave's Workshop
• 4. What didn’t go well during the course? What will you do to improve?
• Things are going fine, I will just keep working.
• 5. Has this course developed your ability to see your work in relation to a local and an international context? How?
• Yes. Basically art is about culture, when we look at an art piece, it is actually a reflection of its culture. In the course we look at Chinese artists such as Xu Bing, Song Dong, Liu Xiaodong, Xu Zhen and many other contemporary practitioners, their works are deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and raised debates around contemporary social issues.
• 6. Has this course helped you understand different approaches artists and designers have? How?
• Yes indeed. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s works are totally different compared with Marlene Dumas’ or Tino Sehgal’s.
• 7. Has this course broadened your view of creative practices in other design fields?
• Yes. Because my classmates are from different background, we would have conversations about graphic design, architectural design, furniture design, industrial design and etc. We also looked at videos about Helvetica, Charles & Ray Eames as well as Hitchcock’s movies. These experience has broadened my view of design fields dramatically.
• 8. How have these diverse approaches affected your own practice?
• When I was making my recent work ‘ Stat Rosa Pristina Nomine’, I got inspired by a lot of related artists and scholars. Painters such as Elizabeth Peyton, Chantal Joffe, Luc Tuymans and Liu Ye, the master of semiotics Umberto Eco, philosopher Jacques Lacan and many other approaches.
• 9. What did you learn from the visitors?
• Most of the visitors in the MA PRE class are tutors from UAL, they talked about how the courses run, how the program works, what is happening in London art field, their purpose building a platform for art students developing their own ideas, which is first-hand information and makes us feel closer to the course. We also had graduated students visitors, we went to exhibitions together and it was fantastic to get to know their views and share mine.
• 10. What was different from your Chinese education? What was similar?
• I’m studying Chinese Painting at CAFA, I had courses such as Introduction to Calligraphy, Traditional Freehand Drawing Copy, Linear Sketch, Landscape Copy and etc. My BA study is more about getting into Chinese Ink Painting Traditions (both technic and methodology), so I can say in some way it is about the history. However, UAL MA PRE course is more flexible, I learned a lot contemporary conversations and international issues, which is an excellent bridge for my MA Study in London.
• 11. Did your English improve?
• Absolutely. I did so many presentations and debate in the course, now I enjoy communicate in English pretty much.
• 12. Has this course helped you become more vocal during classroom discussions?
• I was vocal before I attend this course, haha, now it is even.
• 13. Have your learned how to make an argument for your ideas in your writing and your research proposal?
• Indeed, I have to argue for my traditional position a lot. At first my study proposal was messy, I don’t even remember how many times I dropped an old version, I could say now I can explain my research proposal much clearer.
• 14. Have you learned how to be more active during interviews and make an argument for you ideas?
• Yes.
• 15. How would you describe this course to a new student?
• It’s now an half-hour talking…It was invaluable to study with Sandra and all the other classmates.

 

★池晓星，被伦敦艺术大学切尔西艺术学院室内与空间设计硕士课程录取

Final reflection on the course

• 1. Has this course helped you develop a critical thinking method and an English vocabulary to go with it? How?
• Yes, this course pays much attention to the methodology of thinking and practicing. I learned to take a critical perspective of understanding other’s works along with using the vocabulary of art in the course. Meanwhile, in my own practice, I learned to work through process as observation, research and demonstration to think deeper of my theme. Also reflective thinking afterwards is very helpful in whole procedure.
• 2. Have you learned how to analyze and discuss the work of others? Your own work?
• Yes, the course helped me to analyze the work of others through the visual language and formal quality, and thinking deeper of the interpretation of the work, artists’ philosophy and belief, In my own practice, I also learned always to think about how my works speak these elements.
• 3. What was your favorite part of the course? Not so favorite?
• My favorite part of the course is to watch the videos and artist’s works. Sandra leaded us how to understand their works and share our own perspectives. Sometimes it was very touching when knowing the context and the artists’ philosophy; sometimes we watched these works with certain themes and questions that leaded me to think. I had no formal art study background before, these experiences for me are quite different from watching art works in gallery or exhibition but much more appealing. And I’ve got to know so many artists and architects’ work through this course that made me qualified to be a MA in Chelsea.
• 4. What didn’t go well during the course? What will you do to improve?
• My research direction is new for me, and it took me very long to get the correct direction with extending more in architecture, space experience and art area. And it’s really exciting to get there finally with Sandra’s help. I will keep working and practicing my process during these months and get a good preparation for the MA course.
• 5. Has this course broadened your view of creative practices in other design fields?
• Totally, Our classmates come from different fields of art and design and Sandra is really knowledgeable in all of these fields. I’m so grateful to spend time with my classmates as a precious experience in life. I learned a lot in every mini exhibition and work presentation, and get inspired from their perspective and showing their works. And we went to the gallery and exhibition almost every week, with systematically knowledge learning in class, I gained deeper understanding of the artist’s works and design process outside classroom.
• 6. How have these diverse approaches affected your own practice?
• These diverse approaches affected a lot in my own practice. My practice were influenced by Huxiaoyuan, Songdong, Peter Zumthor, MOMA, whose works I visited in the exhibition and read the books during the course, and this leaded me to complete my works step by step.
• 7. Did your English improve?
• My English improved a lot during the course. I found it made me speak English and read English academic articles more naturally.
• 8. Have you learned how to be more active during interviews and make an argument for you ideas?
• Totally. We had class about the influences, philosophy, belief..anything about our works. We were guided to ask questions to each other and sort out the information and keep practicing all the time. In the last stage of course we had interview exercises; it made me more confident to talk about the elements in the interview.
• 9. How would you describe this course to a new student?
• This is a valuable course for students who want to study in MA course in future. I’ve learned about the basic elements of the artistic language through the course and get a clear view of what I’m going in MA course, owing to our responsible tutor and helpful classmates. The critical thinking learning is also very useful for my future study and work.