Chapter 3 & 4

Chapter 3 & 4 I wrote at the end of the christmas holidays and a little into the beginning of second term. I feel that because I wrote so much over christmas I left too much of a gap between writing when I got back. I regret not getting on with it as soon as I got back because it would have given me more time at the end in order not to panic about finishing and improving upon everything. Chapter three was fairly similar to chapter 2 as it was a further exploration into what I was researching. I also found chapter three a lot more interesting that I anticipated and feel that I have learnt so much since starting this dissertation. I feel pleased that I have more knowledge in an area in which I didn’t before and feel confident to talk about it.

Chapter four was very different to the first three chapters and was taxing in a different way. For chapter four I analysed the Isotype in regards to what had been learnt throughout. So I had to really think about how to write this chapter to reaffirm to the reader what had been discovered and why it was important. At first I felt that I had written chapter four too simplicity as I had explored so much. However after speaking to my tutor it reassured me as it would be boring to reiterate absolutely everything in the dissertation. I did however add images throughout the dissertation to help the reader and I to visualise and understand the topics more clearly.

Dissertation Summer Work

Over the summer I was determined to get some reading under my belt before starting back in September, dissertation is quite a daunting thought for everyone so I wanted to make sure that I got a head start as the reading is pretty advanced in a lot of the books and I needed time to process it well. During the summer I managed to read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, The Eyes of the Skin by Pallasmaa, Art and Illusion by Gombrich and I also started to read The Address of the Eye by Sobchak but it is a very difficult read so is taking more time. Whilst reading these I had a real change of heart in regards to my dissertation question and felt as though it wasn’t quite right and that I didn’t wholly agree with it anymore. Due to this I decided to stop reading and wait to speak to my tutor to decide which new direction would be best to take. I didn’t want to wholly change topic as I liked the area that I was researching but I was definite that the question wasn’t right for me anymore and that I wanted to do something that I would enjoy and be sure on as it’s such a big task. The first week back I met with Martin and explained everything that I had read, discovered and taken note of and my change of heart. He supported my choices and we discussed where to go with it, I voiced all of my thoughts and new ideas to help with this process. We have now come to an idea that I am really happy with and I am very happy that the reading that I have done is still relevant to my new question!!

Starting my dissertation

After writing my dissertation proposal form I got allocated a tutor and had my first tutorial. I researched my topic a little before so that I didn’t turn up absolutely clueless (which i’m very glad I did) and he recommended a few books to start researching. My first problem arose in trying to actually find these books. There were apparently no where to be found in the library so I had to request them to be brought in, this was a bit of a time waste as I wasn’t sure if i’d have them in time for easter! So in the meantime, after some looking I found pdf versions on the internet which I am so grateful for because the books weren’t ready by easter time and that would have been a big problem. This enabled me to begin my dissertation proposal..