My Pending Practice

After the Module 1 zoom call this week I thought about the number of blogs I could write A) Pretend I have it all together and that I understand everything that was said B) Write about what we discussed in the meeting as a summary or C) Admit I still don't know what my practice and areas of learning are AT ALL. I went with C. 

When the zoom call was taking place I felt panicked, out of my depth and was overthinking all the work I had done prior to the meeting. I let myself feel I was wrong. I had an overwhelming sense of self doubt. I came away questioning what is my practice and how do I learn? Something I thought I had sussed out. I didn't realise that the call actually helped me in so many ways. I was able to reflect on what made me feel this way throughout the call linking it back to prior experiences. In college having to deal with being surrounded by favouritism, being knocked back at auditions, not being picked out in class, the pressure of looking a certain way. And how it lead to me becoming very internal and detached from dance not being able to put out ideas anymore, not being able to choreograph or ask for help. And how I take that into my job in customer service and social media - never wanting to fail my employee by coming to work looking scruffy, not being able to be as creative as I would like, not satisfying a customer and getting a complaint. It is all fear of REJECTION and being WRONG. What I didn't realise was that by being rejected in one way or another I have something to push against. I am able to learn through rejection. 

I think this can also link to a prior blog I have wrote about feeling the pressure to post things others deem as perfect on Web 2.0 platforms and not feeling validated or fulfilled when it doesn't get a reaction. Is this the fear of feeling rejected within our society as well my jobs and personal life? 

I went on to ask myself what I have learnt from these situations and how they can be applied to my practice now. Which made me realise that at the moment an area of my practice is practicing positive mental health. My practice is a tool for my future development.

Some things I took from the meeting was:

1. I was so wrong at what I thought my practice was - DANCE is my DISCIPLINE 
2. My practice can be ANYTHING I see it as 
3. I need to look more into finding specific memories and using reflection to look critically. Do I feel something from this experience? Where did it come from? Why? 
4. UNPACK everything from my professional life and my personal life. What are my transferable skills?
5. Stop comparing myself to how far ahead I think others are of me. We are all on the same journey but we all take different roads to get there.

I learnt a lot by listening to others and what their opinion was. I think a tip to take into my next discussion is to put forward my idea regardless of how I am feeling internally.

Would love to hear more about what others have found from their practice and areas of learning,

Love Abi x 

Rhizome Learning Model

Over the last couple of weeks I have had trouble trying to understand what was meant by the word practice. I was trying to pinpoint it down to just one thing. I thought over and over again that my practice was solely dance but upon reflection of this it I have realised that it is SO much more. I think my practice is the every day doing of what is around me and how I learn from it. I started by writing down the things I learn from. Some of which are:

• My 'Muggle' job
• Past experiences - good or bad
• Web 2.0 platforms 
• Teachers
• My influences

The list really was endless! My practice is who I am down the core at the rawest version of myself as well as the best. It is so many things. My practice is ME.

My practice is TRANSDISCIPLINARY - which is the idea that you are not defined to one single discipline. My practice cannot be categorised instead it is made up of multiple different things/skill sets. For example I am a dancer, choreographer, singer, actress, model. I promote myself as a business, do my own tax returns, take and edit videos and photos. I am made up of so many disciplines. My skills are transferable to each aspect of my life. 

A huge part of my practice at the moment is my 'muggle' job. I am currently running the social media pages for a Wedding and Prom boutique. This includes taking photo's of the dresses, posting them on instagram and facebook with captions and creating and videoing Tiktok's for their account. It involves being imaginative, unique and trying to make their pages stand out from the crowd. Running the pages has given me a good insight in how to promote a business through online platforms. The skills I have learnt here are all one's I can use for self promotion in running my own business as a performer. 

In one of the first pages of the Module 1 handbook there was a phrase that literally danced off the page for me - granted I had to look up the definition first!. Rhizome learning model. Meaning that it hints at 'the interconnectedness of ideas as well as boundless exploration across many fronts from many different starting points' The dictionary defines a Rhizome as 'the thick stem of some plants, such as iris and mint, that grows along or under the ground and has roots and stems growing from it' The metaphor of this learning process originally came from Deleuze and Guttari (1987). I love this comparison so much. It shows that there is no beginning or end to a thought it can grow and come into contact with another idea just like roots intertwining. It allows for things to become connected and form a network of thoughts.

In my opinion I have been a Rhizome learning model on more then one occasion. One of which was when I was choreographing a dance for an in-house production. I started with an initial idea and as I started to watch my dance on bodies I was constantly changing movements to make them connect and flow better. I did this through reflection in action and reflection on action (Schon, 1987), speaking to my dancers to ask them what they thought would make it better, watching performances of other dances online for more inspiration and asking for feedback from peers. All of these 'roots' connected together and formed a dance from one initial idea. 

In conclusion we are all made up of so many parts. We are constantly learning from each other without realising and this connects us and our experiences. I look forward to reflecting on my practice and looking further into my ideas as I know this is only the start. 

References:

• Oxford Dictionary 
• Deleuze, G. and Gutarri, F. (1980) A Thousand Plateus
• Schon, D. (1987) The Reflective Practitioner 
• Photo from https://chid.washington.edu/rhizomatic-community 
• Module 1 Handbook

Human Interaction or lack of it?

Mark Zukerburg the man behind the Web 2.0 platform Facebook. Now I don't need to tell you what Facebook is (unless you have been living under a rock for the last 18 years) but I would like to explore some ideas around this online platform. 

Mark Zukerburg makes a point that 'connectivity is a basic human right'. We are able to connect with other's face to face quite easily and I believe that most people around the world are able to stay connected through human interaction - this could be with your family, the people you live with, work colleagues or even people you see at the supermarket. However most of us nowadays connect through online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Even some people's dating lives start online. I am guilty of interacting with my friends online more then I do in person which sounds so weird to actually say out loud? Am I lacking basic human interaction with my friends? Which leads me to the question - What if you don't have access to the internet? 

I was staggered to read that only '2.7 billion people in the world today - a little more then one third of the worlds population - have internet access' This can be for a variety of different reasons like being too young, too old, too poor. Looking into this more most people don't have enough disposable income to spend on data access. As well as the global infrastructure required to deliver the internet is extremely expensive it includes the cost of the land and electricity to power cell sites, backhaul transport to carry data, licensing spectrum and all the underlying equipment. I question whether people in third world countries even know what facebook is? Which for us sounds crazy because so much of our lives revolve around web 2.0 platforms and the world wide web. It proves that 'participation is a function of our ability to actually participate' and that Hamiltons (2000)  idea of 'making participation cheap, easy and quick people are more able to get involved in the processes of collaboration, sharing and interaction' isn't actually 'cheap' enough for some countries/people yet.

In 2018 I took on a 6 month dance contract in India. I have seen with my own eyes that the way they connect with each other is not through the likes of facebook. Although there is internet available to them only just over 50% of the population have access to this. The poverty here made me realise that something so small like a social media app has no impact on their life what so ever yet Instagram and Facebook have become a huge part of our lives. Some may say that our lives revolve around them. 

Reflecting this into my own practice I believe that the dance industry would not be where it is today without online platforms and the internet. We are able to access classes online to help improve our training. Facebook groups are made so we are able to post information about auditions in them. The internet is available so we can research into absolutely anything from how to prevent an injury to how to dress for an 80's themed dance class. 

Instagram for example allows us to post videos/photos of ourselves which can be accessed by anyone. It can lead to modelling jobs or being put forward for something. It is an exceptional tool for our industry. It can help improve ones learning and push them further into doing better and doing more. However I can't help but note the negative side to social media. The constant comparing of yourself to what you see online. Why am I not as good as her? Why can't I look like them? The feeling of not being good enough as you scroll and scroll. The constant pressure of having to post something others deem as 'perfect'. Is it weird that I am comparing my blog to my instagram feed? I am looking for validation off my peers that my blog is good enough. I am constantly checking for 'comments' and 'views' and wondering why people aren't interacting with me. Again is my blog not good enough? If I have taken these feelings into my learning where else have I let them affect me? It can consume us and eat us up sometimes. Social media has a HUGE impact on mental health. It is important to remember that you are only seeing what the user is choosing you to see. A tiny chapter of their life. 

So in short no, not everyone is open to connectivity through the internet. Only people with the means to participate in this online platform can. Not everyone is open to the same education through the internet. I think my career as a dancer would be non existent without these platforms. We all wouldn't be here at the moment without the internet. You wouldn't be reading my blog right now. 

This is a topic I could speak about all day but I am going to leave you with this thought if you had no access to the internet and an audition was being held online do you think it is right that you will not be able to attend due to no fault of your own? 

References:

I found watching the 'Social Network' on Netflix an interesting watch into why Mark Zuckerberg started up Facebook 

Module 1 Handbook 

Hamilton 2000 

All information on the internet was taken from this statement from Mark Zuckerberg: https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.2365-6/12057105_1001874746531417_622371037_n.pdf?_nc_cat=103&ccb=3&_nc_sid=ad8a9d&_nc_ohc=DGOrJ1T7r1MAX9yBum3&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=fa2642e50bfd6ca314fb398254132c94&oe=604F8E59 

Photo taken from google images

The body of knowledge that grows out of a group🌳

Collective Intelligence 'the body of knowledge that grows out of a group'. It is a theoretical concept  because it is here to challenge and extend existing knowledge which in comparison is just like the world wide web. As Ulrich et al (2008) suggests one of the key aspects of a Web 2.0 model is 'that these services are constantly evolving and that each platform is progressively developed and replaced' 

Don Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams stated in their book (Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, 2006) that Collective intelligence needs four principles in order to exist. These are:

1. Openness (needing people and companies to be open about their ideas)
2. Peerness (taking old information and products and modifying them to match yours and other personal needs)
3. Sharing (sharing your thoughts and ways to improve an idea/product) 
4. Acting Globally (allowing other people to see your idea on the internet giving them new knowledge and allowing them to use it and potentially improve it further) 

For us this is a great concept of what happens through using Web 2.0 by blogging

1. Thinking of an idea/topic we want to raise or talk about 
2. We write about what we already know/what information we have been able to gather through a blog. This acts as a newsfeed for other users. 
3. The newsfeed then allows us to not only read but comment and have interaction with this persons thoughts/opinions on a topic
4. We can comment, question, recommend and learn from their blog as well as the blogger learning from our comment. This can generate new ideas and a different point of view.

It is clear that one of our learning tools for for this course is Communication in which doing so leads to collective intelligence. We are constantly being questioned to push our thoughts further and being encouraged to look at other peoples points of view to open up our own. As the Module 1 handbook says 'We are seeing a community as a group of people who are making an effort to create a partnership of communicating with each other'

For me learning off others experiences is so helpful. I am going to take everything I can from this community around me! I can't tell you how much I have already learnt from reading blogs from present students and people only just starting this course. It is amazing what you can learn from others writing and Web 2.0 truly allows you to do this. 

Just like roots in the ground we are all from different places but are growing together to form one tree with many branches of thoughts and ideas.

Reflective thoughts:

• Just like Web 2.0 our practice is 'constantly evolving and that each platform is progressively developed and replaced' and unless we can keep up to date through communication and collective intelligence through networking and other means we will be replaced. Do you think there is a pressure within your own practice to keep up to date with new trends? Do you think you are easily replaced within this industry? What are the ethical values of this? 

Things to improve/work on:

• Citing - HELP! I am really struggling with this! I have read and researched into it ALOT and think I am confusing myself even more. Definitely need to keep attempting and practicing before our workload is due in. Any tips for beginners?! 

References: 

Collective intelligence definition - https://www.organizationalpsychologydegrees.com/faq/what-is-collective-intelligence/ Paragraph 1 

Web 2.0 model - Ulrich et al 2008

Collective intelligence theory - Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams Book 'Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, 2006'

Module 1 Handbook Page 37, Part 11.C, Paragraph 2

Perfect February 🦋

F E B R U A R Y. There is something strangely satisfying about this February. All the days align on the calender. It seems the perfect month to be starting something new. After our welcome induction I am starting to feel a lot clearer on what the course actually involves. I am looking forward to my 1-1 meeting with my course leader next week, hopefully this will help further my understanding. I've decided to write down some of my key notes on here to help me summarise what I took from the meeting. 

MODULE 1 keywords/notes:

❤ Establishing what your practice in

❤ Reflection 

❤ Communication 

❤ Connection 

❤ Being able to recognise key people

❤ Influential places

❤ What do I engage with?

❤ Who/what is it influenced by?

❤ Who am I as a practitioner/artist? 

There is a HUGE support network around me which includes Unihub being a point of extremely useful resources, my supervisor who is more like a 'critical friend' and us the BA PP community. I love the fact that we are able to be open and honest about our work and feelings on our blogs. It is great to know that I am not alone in this course and I have a brilliant network around me. 

It was great to listen to students that have finished module 1 and listen to their tips about the course. 

❤ READ THE HANDBOOKS OVER AND OVER AGAIN

❤ Be open and honest with your blogs

❤ Listen to other peoples opinions 

❤ Don't be afraid to ask questions/speak up 

❤ Trust your instincts 

Being a perfectionist and worrier I already know that I am going to find it hard to trust my instincts but I am going to try hard not to self sabotage and go with my initial thoughts and feelings more. 

So what now? I am going to read the hand book and annotate any parts I have questions about and try to do my own research into it. If not make a key list of things I really am not understanding to discuss with  Adesola in my one to one. I am going to look at the reading list and make a start on one of the books AND last but not least read all of your blogs and see what your thoughts are at the moment. 

Something that really stuck with me from the meeting was that the questions we have won't be answered with a 'typical yes or no answer' they will be answered with a question. I think this will really allow me to explore my thoughts and feelings further and really help me have a deeper understanding on my original thought.

So here is to new starts and new beginnings and a perfect February.

Love Abigail x