So it is that time of year again when we seem to have a billion things we need to do. This leads to my well-practiced and impressive skill of finding a billion OTHER things to do, which are suddenly magnificently important and completely necessary in order for me to survive the day/week/lifetime... at least this is what I manage to convince myself. The biggest task (and definitely the most dreaded by creative students everywhere) is writing an essay. I actually quite like writing and I have an A level in English language, however the difference between writing creatively and addressing some academic statement we don't really even understand seems huge (and even more so the further I get into the essay). I may not be speaking for every art student here and I do not wish to bunch us all into an easy stereotype, but an essay definitely seems much more daunting since we have made the conscious decision to be creative makers rather than follow a more academic route. We all get so used to thinking about making things and focusing on the visual that when faced with a task that cannot be answered by thinking in this way, we're all like: "Hang on, you want us to write words? Shit." It is as if the section of our brains that used to be in charge of writing back when we were at school has gotten bored and wandered off, grumpy about having no apparent purpose for such a long time.
Here are some of the things I have done this week rather than make a start on my essay:
Been into Uni and done little to nothing almost every day.
Found endless TV and DVDs which I suddenly have an overwhelming desire to see.
Slept. Slept a lot.
Been to Asda and bought a bunch of stuff I don't need.
Been online and bought a bunch of stuff I don't need.
Painted my nails at least 3 times.
Organised a bowling trip for uni friends (in my defence, this was supposed to happen sooner).
Checked Facebook 765339297 times in the hope of something interesting to read.
Checked Twitter 92946482 times in the hope of something interesting to read.
Wrote the previous blog.
Wrote this blog.
(I think there is more, but I didn't realise quite how unproductive I had actually been until I wrote it down. So I'm going to stop.)
I realise that any academic person reading this may think I am a moron, as they write loads of stuff all the time and don't make any song and dance about it. I do accept that any non-creative degree course must be mind-blowingly difficult at times and would include multiple essays and lots of other writing, however I think many people perceive creative degree courses to be easy and just about drawing a bunch of pretty pictures. These are the same people who walk around a gallery and say "I could do that". The people who also, coincidentally, did not "do that". So here are the top 5 things I can think of which I think are difficult about my course which probably wouldn't be an issue on many others.
1. Glass when it's cold is sharp. Glass when it's hot is... well, really really hot. There is way more pain in a hot glass or hot metal tool burn than you could ever get from a paper cut.
2. We generally are in Uni all the time. It is not uncommon to be in uni for 10-12 hours at a time. When people have written assessments they can go home, sit around in their pants and write in comfort. If we have a bunch of glass stuff we need to make for an assessment, we cannot take a furnace or a kiln home to get on with it. I also think it is probably quite frowned upon to do such things in our pants.
3. Our course is much more labour intensive. We are on our poor tired feet all day, walking around looking for things or people (usually the ever evasive technician, Tim) and have to lug many heavy things about (glass, for example). That's without even mentioning the hotshop, which is the most energy-draining activity of all. Possibly ever.
4. The hot glass furnace is roughly 1100 degrees centigrade (I know I've said the heat thing before, but this point is different.) We have to work in fairly intense heat. How hot is the average lecture theatre?
5. Almost everything we do is messy. Making moulds involves mixing plaster. Cutting flat glass always seems to involve cutting myself and therefore (an often unknown source of) leaking blood. Hotshop involves sweating disgustingly and carbon matter that gets everywhere. We don't wear nice things for uni, or if we do then we almost always regret it. I have an ever growing stock of "art clothes" from making such a mistake.
None of that even touches on the "thinking of an idea" bit, which is a whole other chapter. I could go on, but I wont as I have an essay to write. Which I am definitely going to crack on with now. Definitely.
Well... maybe.
Here are some of the things I have done this week rather than make a start on my essay:
Been into Uni and done little to nothing almost every day.
Found endless TV and DVDs which I suddenly have an overwhelming desire to see.
Slept. Slept a lot.
Been to Asda and bought a bunch of stuff I don't need.
Been online and bought a bunch of stuff I don't need.
Painted my nails at least 3 times.
Organised a bowling trip for uni friends (in my defence, this was supposed to happen sooner).
Checked Facebook 765339297 times in the hope of something interesting to read.
Checked Twitter 92946482 times in the hope of something interesting to read.
Wrote the previous blog.
Wrote this blog.
(I think there is more, but I didn't realise quite how unproductive I had actually been until I wrote it down. So I'm going to stop.)
I realise that any academic person reading this may think I am a moron, as they write loads of stuff all the time and don't make any song and dance about it. I do accept that any non-creative degree course must be mind-blowingly difficult at times and would include multiple essays and lots of other writing, however I think many people perceive creative degree courses to be easy and just about drawing a bunch of pretty pictures. These are the same people who walk around a gallery and say "I could do that". The people who also, coincidentally, did not "do that". So here are the top 5 things I can think of which I think are difficult about my course which probably wouldn't be an issue on many others.
1. Glass when it's cold is sharp. Glass when it's hot is... well, really really hot. There is way more pain in a hot glass or hot metal tool burn than you could ever get from a paper cut.
2. We generally are in Uni all the time. It is not uncommon to be in uni for 10-12 hours at a time. When people have written assessments they can go home, sit around in their pants and write in comfort. If we have a bunch of glass stuff we need to make for an assessment, we cannot take a furnace or a kiln home to get on with it. I also think it is probably quite frowned upon to do such things in our pants.
3. Our course is much more labour intensive. We are on our poor tired feet all day, walking around looking for things or people (usually the ever evasive technician, Tim) and have to lug many heavy things about (glass, for example). That's without even mentioning the hotshop, which is the most energy-draining activity of all. Possibly ever.
4. The hot glass furnace is roughly 1100 degrees centigrade (I know I've said the heat thing before, but this point is different.) We have to work in fairly intense heat. How hot is the average lecture theatre?
5. Almost everything we do is messy. Making moulds involves mixing plaster. Cutting flat glass always seems to involve cutting myself and therefore (an often unknown source of) leaking blood. Hotshop involves sweating disgustingly and carbon matter that gets everywhere. We don't wear nice things for uni, or if we do then we almost always regret it. I have an ever growing stock of "art clothes" from making such a mistake.
None of that even touches on the "thinking of an idea" bit, which is a whole other chapter. I could go on, but I wont as I have an essay to write. Which I am definitely going to crack on with now. Definitely.
Well... maybe.