Still life with tired eyes (2006)

Busy, busy, busy! Lots of deadlines at work and at home kept me away. Sorry about that!

Anyway, to business...

1. The 1st tutorial last Wednesday- As the provided map showed, the venue was literally round the corner from my flat and as I'd left with time to spare I was there really early. There was around 10 of us when we got going around 7. Secretly, I had hoped for a smaller crowd so that we could work together closer in the future but I'm not really complaining - more points of view to share around in a lively discussion. You could tell most of us were very nervous at this first meeting as we didn't say much when it kicked off (I was terrified but rather excited too). Our tutor arrived 10 minutes late and then spent the first half an hour (literally) explaining the course to us. Ok, some people who haven't read anything so far may not know but the rest of us...well, I was bored rigid as I did know and wanted to move on to what we should be studying. Still, If the boot was on the other foot I'd have appreciated a introduction of sorts.

After that, it was rather enjoyable and enlightening. We got a a few handouts explaining how to taking notes and also what she prefers - logistically, speaking - in essays from us. I was a bit shocked to hear she wanted only 4 lines in an essay paragraph (must get that confirmed correctly, that can't be right?) and that she detests long sentences. As she laid out the rules I couldn't help thinking of my TMA1 and how it now seemed less than as satisfactory as I thought. The final hour of the session saved the best 'till last: I'd been struggling with the 'Seeing' section of Block 1. It just didn't click for some inexplicable reason. It seemed to be a 'skill' to pick up rather than something that needs to be learned by regular study. Taking a painting from the 'Illustration' book by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun she probed us on the colours, the background, the look overall etc. etc. to the point where suddenly everything I'd read so far made complete sense. I even chipped in with a few points during the flow of discussion on it. It was perfect! Some call these sort of moments in A103 like a epiphany, I think was another one of mine! Overall, a great night that really gave me a buzz afterwards. No TMA1 back, though.

2. 'Seeing' - well, as I said above I had been struggling with this but the tutorial discussion above really helped. In fact, so much that I decided to pop over at lunchtime the next day to the National Gallery to see if I could find it and reflect on the discussion the night before. Alas, it wasn't there in the right section for the era (or anywhere for that matter). Instead, I looked at a painting I'd also spotted in the book which took my fancy. I can't for the life of me recall its name but it's a scene of a mad professor trying out some kind of 'bird pump' (!) in front of his friends and family. I read over my notes of Charles Harrison's audio discussion on how to approach a painting beforehand and prepared myself. Perhaps it was the lack of time but I felt a bit frustrated I didn't get more out of it. I so wanted it to come out with all kinds of wonderful words to say but I didn't. Oh dear.

By Saturday, I'd completed Block 1 in the book and then watched Mr Harrison on DVD. 'Good programme' I thought and the use of a Pollock to confront our notions of how to view a painting for the 1st time was a great idea. Like many, I was screaming at the start 'it's a bloody mess' but gradually its allure came forth in the pragmatic & simple way Harrison broke its development down. I shall never look at a typical Pollock painting again in the same way! The exercise in the 'Audio-Visual Book' afterwards was pointless, though. I mean, it just confirmed what was already being said in the programme. Waste of time which could have been spent on....

3. TMA2 Part 1 - My initial plan was to wait until the TMA1 had been returned and then to tackle the next marked assignment either in a confident mood that things are going well or in a new direction if it hadn't fulfilled the tutor's expectations. Well, I thought, balls to that: it's the 15/2/05 today and I still haven't received it. I know my tutor has three jobs to juggle (tutor, psychotherapist and full-time mother) but it has been two and a half weeks since the deadline and we are now into time allocated for the next one. I had thought I could do it all at the end if the current situation had cropped up but I have since been advised by many on the course that that is a very bad idea.

So, despite a thumping hangover on Sunday I made a bit of a start. To be honest, I wasn't as worried with this first part of the TMA2 as I was when I started on TMA1. It seemed straight forward enough - 'a descriptive account of the painting' in 300 words. The notes I had made about what terms to talk about were clear enough and the painting was full of stuff to discuss. But that was the problem - there was too much to discuss after taking notes on everything I'd observed within its frame! My first finished draft following this was nearly 400 words! I can't go into too much detail here as the O.U. rules on TMAs forbid me to do so but I will say that some things in the painting we have to work on were very unclear to the naked eye and in the end I had to instigate a long online debate in the A103 chat room to see if anyone else was as stumped as I was. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who had such problems.

As I started this whole thing a week early, I've decided that my draft is probably good enough now to leave until the last week before the deadline. Then I'll tweak it until it's done.

I've now started on week two's stuff on 'Sonnets'. Happy to say that so far, so good. This will be the last part I know I'll enjoy before I tackle music (could be tough and off-putting) and philosophy (hmmm...not my cup of tea) in this block. For now, time to dive into 'Shall I compare thee...' and all that 14 line jazz.

STOP PRESS: Had some great news! Remember i told you a while back that we had to cancel our trip to Rome (which would have been this week) because of our tight budget ? This weekend break was planned some time before I'd agreed to take on A103 so, when I realised it was to form one entire block of the course, I got rather excited. But this excitement turned to utter despondace when we had to unfortunately change our plans. A shame.

Well, a friend of ours from New Zealand is coming over and when we asked here what she'd like to see while she was here, she came right out & suggested we visit Paris with her!!! It's all booked now and not too expensive - thank god. We are taking the cheaper route via car & ferry but at least we're getting away from it from it all for a few days. But more importantly, as I just realized this lunchtime, it'll definitely help with Block 3 on the French Revolution!!!! Place De La Bastille etc. Fantastic.

And - TA DA- I've just checked this right now on the website - BLOCK 3 STARTS AT THE SAME TIME WE ARE GOING THERE!!!!!!! Ha ha! Brilliant! Great news!!