It is coming to the end of a long, but very exciting and very inspiring term at LICA. Similar to what I said in the previous post, the last week of any term is always the busiest one. Deadlines loom, work springs up from seemingly nowhere yet it always seems to get done one way or the other. The difference I have noticed from Undergraduate to Postgraduate study is that working on deadlines has made realise that they are not everything in your life, you do have a life outside of your work; you need to eat, sleep, relax and chill out. These were factors I never used to factor into my work pattern, it used to be work or nothing. Even though there is a lot of content that I need to get done by Friday of this week, I feel much more clearly than I have done in previous years because of the experiences I have taken from them.
This week is going to be a busy one, yet as ever it is really exciting and really interesting to be involved with. Today (Monday) I am working on my Marketing and Promotional Strategy document for my business pitch on Friday. Although one can always think that marketing is a glamorous activity, there is a lot of leg work that goes behind the scenes which is fascinating to read up on and try and work out for yourself. It is very easy to say you will have a website and a Youtube Channel but if you don't know who your target audience is then there is almost no point because you'll end up missing your target audience. I've got a SWOT (Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats) Analysis to undertake for my artistic practice which is making me really think about my practice in a much broader scale. It is making me think if there really is a market for my practice, who are my competitors; who I am working in similar vain to. This is the first Marketing strategy I've done, so I am not expecting it to be brilliant, I want to make it the best I can, but I know it is the first one I have done so obviously it is not going to be of the highest professional standard. However I am learning all the time about all the different aspects to Arts Administration and I am really looking forward to hearing feedback because it will highlight things I have not possibly thought about, and ultimately it can make me more rounded in how I deliver information about my practice, which is a good thing!. (Not to sound Arrogant, I just really want to learn and always make things better!!).
Later on Today I am going into the Studio to rehearse for my work in progress tomorrow morning with Matt Fenton. I've got 3 main things to Show:
10 Photographs of a display called 'The City@Night' here's the flickr link to the photo set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilleym/sets/72157625577153938/
A Text / Image Presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint which is a fictional text piece about arriving at Lancaster Train Station at night and visiting the various nightclubs around the city.
An overview of ideas for my short live / multimedia performance - using a video recorded on a webcam / photos of the city centre / video shot on a camera and some live performance with a soundtrack.
The work In progress showing is tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10am, I'm a bit nervous but at the same time I am happy that the development of these ideas has been an organic process. I set out at the beginning of the term to use this term as more of a research and development stage than a creative process and over the course of the term that is what has happened. This work in progress is an overview of the things I have been thinking about and what I have put into practice.
Friday is the day of my pitch, hypothetically to the Arts Council 'Grants For Arts' scheme. I'm very nervous as this is the first pitch I have ever done, but I'm also very looking forward to it because it gives me a platform to really engage people with my practice and really deliver a confident and assured presentation of what my practice is, where it has come from and where it is going.
Saturday Morning I head home back to Marlborough, Wiltshire for the Christmas break. I'm looking forward to spending some time home with my parents and my girlfriend and just let myself realise that my life isn't just dictated by my work.
In terms of working over the Christmas break I've got two major things to be working on: finishing off my 'Grants for The Arts' Application and Portfolio, along with my 5,000 word essay on the need for Theatre Institutions to be digitally innovative in communicating with their audiences. Hopefully they won't take all of the break to do!, I really want to eat lots and drink a (fair) amount over the break and reflect and celebrate on a great year!
Have a lovely week!
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