packet one / advising notes

Hi folks,

With the packet one deadline looming, I wanted to again share my advising notes and remind you to paraphrase your semester goals (as I outline in my notes).

Let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to receiving your packets!

cheers, Pete



Advising Philosophy | Packet Notes, Winter 2009 • Peter Hocking

Mailing Address: 16 Clarke Lane, Providence, RI 02906
Home: 401/272-7248 Cell: 401-413-2075
Email: clarkelane@mac.com, peter.hocking@goddard.edu, phocking@gmail.com
Send digital packets to: clarkelane@mac.com. If you are using specialized digital tools, please contact me in advance to be certain that our file formats are compatible.

General Expectations
You’ve chosen to pursue graduate school for reasons that are distinct to you. I will make every effort to work with you to insure that your studies address your purposes. In order for this to work, you must make every effort to be clear about your goals and intentions. In working with you, I also have goals and intentions. Unless you tell me otherwise, they will inform they way I work with you. My general expectations are:
* You’ve enrolled in graduate school to engage with new ideas and perspectives, not simply to have your current skills, experience, and point-of-view affirmed.
* You are passionate about developing your personal practice.
* You understand that engaging the program’s degree criteria is of central importance in developing your curricular plans.
* You understand that this is not a studio-based MFA program and that our program equally balances theory and practice.

While I believe that an MFA degree can be applied to many contexts, I also am aware that holding this degree will allow you to teach in a college or university. As much as I believe I need to be able to listen and engage with your interests, I believe that I have a responsibility to your potential, future students to help you be able to engage with their passions. Your ability to engage in critical discourse, to engage with work, forms, and ideas that are different from your own interests will prepare you to work with the diversity of students you may encounter. My questions and suggestions to look broadly at contemporary practice and theory will never be intended to vex you; they will be in service to helping your develop your intellectual, critical, and creative vocabulary.

Packet Guidelines
Packets are an opportunity to build discourse and conversation between a student and advisor. In my experience, packets:
* Build a conversation between a student and an advisor that’s focused on advancing a student’s practice and engagement with the degree criteria.
* Provide a context to engage with discourse, that is the larger contextual conversations that inform ideas, art movements and other intellectual traditions.
* Allow students to document their graduate work, reflecting the (minimum) 26 hours per week that they are devoting to their studies.
* Provide a forum to discuss new directions in one’s work, to take intellectual and artistic risks, and to constructively work through questions or obstacles that might exist in one’s practice.

Packets can take many forms. I will be flexible in working with the form that you develop, as long as it documents your work well and engages critically with the conversation that emerges. A standard packet includes a cover letter (or email), other writing, and documentation of practice. An extended cover letter and documentation of practice is also a good way to approach it. However, you might want to use video, audio or Internet-based forms of documentation – like a website. In cases of alternative modes of documentation /presentation, I ask that you provide a cover letter / email that explains how I should approach the material.

I believe that referring to the degree criteria in the outline of one's packet can help you more quickly and effectively advance in your degree work. By building packet sections that refer to criterion like "context, practice, theory, social engagement, process, and new directions," students can begin to develop their approach to the central questions of the program. While this isn't entirely necessary and people will come to these questions in a variety of ways, I believe that a packet structure like this can both develop habits of thinking and unpack new understanding of these critical dimensions of art practice. This is a suggestion, not a requirement.

Regardless of the table of contents you develop for yourself, each packet normally includes these elements:

· Cover letter: What’s up? In general, please let me know how your work is proceeding and outline any concerns you might have. What have you been doing, seeing, reading, or engaging? What insistent questions have emerged? Are there technical breakthroughs or obstacles that you face? Are you seeking resources to help you move forward? What’s been the focus of your creative work? How are you feeling about the progress you’ve made? Please do not assume that I can (or will) contextualize your work. Use the cover letter to guide me toward your current context.
· Other Writing: This might include journal entries, critical writing, and annotations of reading.
Annotations: To my mind, an annotation has three sentences: 1.) an overview of the work that is essentially descriptive, 2.) an analytical sentence that expresses your reading of the work, and 3.) a reference to how the work is relevant to your own practice. For example, the following book was part of some research for a writing project and this is how I annotated it in bibliographic form:

Krahulik, Karen Christel, Provincetown: From Pilgrim Landing to Gay Resort, New York University Press, New York: 2005.
Using oral history and archival material, Krahulik analyzes the social, economic, political and cultural development of Provincetown, MA. The work well-maps the conflicts between Yankees and the Portuguese, conservatives and sexual/gender transgressive culture; I was sometimes left wondering the line between her analysis and the lived experience of the narrators. The work is helpful in the narrative construction of the Biological Father project and provides a broader context to my own memories of 1970s Provincetown -- especially relating to an emerging queer economy and the place of Lesbians in it; the synergy between Portuguese immigrants and queer visitors / settlers. (pch: September 05)·

Documentation of Practice: This substantive section of the packet can include works in progress, process work, finished work, and experimentation. All work should arrive with basic annotation (e.g., size, medium, duration) and a brief statement that provides context for the work. Documentations may take the form of JPEG / photographic files, audio clips, video, sketches, Internet-based work, etc. Do not send original work unless we have agreed upon it in advance. Please label the work so I know what it is. In the case of visual work, this should include a reference to the size of the original work, the media and any other relevant information.

The average packet contains 8-15 pages of critical writing and documentation. Please do not regularly send packets that are more than 20 pages. If you are doing process writing that is beyond 20 pages, feel free to include it – and provide a reference to the critical areas where you would like me to focus. If you are engaged in a writing practice, indicate that your writing is part of the documentation section of the packet.

First packet
At the beginning of the first packet, in your cover letter, please:
· Paraphrase your study plan goals – especially pay attention to how your thinking about your goals may have changed since submitting your study plan at the residency. Are there things that have captured your imagination and taken greater priority? Are there goals that have receded in their importance? For students compiling their portfolio, has your outline changed?
· Briefly describe the nature and trajectory of your practice – In a paragraph, help me to understand the media in which you work, the experimentation you have undertaken, the forms in which you’re currently working.
· Articulate the kind of feedback that will be helpful to you in the coming semester and in this packet in particular – Are you looking for a conversation about ideas? Do you want me to look closely at and comment on the products you are making? Do you want help contextualizing your ideas and work? Would you like me to be nurturing of experimentation? Do you want direct feedback on your accomplishments and gaps? Are there particular kinds of resources to which I might refer you? Is there a kind of feedback that I might not imagine but you might want?

Subsequent Packets
Please reiterate the kind of feedback that you might like – especially if it is specific to the work you are including.

Submission of Packets
Packets are due on the day of the printed schedule. I believe that keeping to the packet schedule is the best way for our conversation to cohere and ask that you make every effort to meet the deadline. If unforeseen circumstances require that you submit a packet later than the deadline, I appreciate as much notice as possible. If a packet arrives more than a week past deadline, I will not guarantee that I can respond to you before the next packet response period.

Discussion Board
I will set up a discussion list for our Advising Group. This provides a central place for us to communicate, share our practice, experimentation, questions, and ideas within a peer community.

"Not Today, Fred"

Liz --

I found this on Wikipedia; if you haven't seen it yet, I hope it may give you some ideas...

In my experience, seems this type of group thrives on confrontational response, unless it is incredibly overwhelming (note the posting in Wiki as well.) A simple refusal by the community to allow this group to function within its boundaries is probably the best bet -- nothing extraordinary, nothing that will give them the media attention they love, but quiet, simple refusal. Optionally, lining the streets with the signs stating the slogan "Not Today, Fred" or similar acts (maybe get the school involved as an example of passive resistance and community action) will possibly be effective as well. And don't forget the Patriot Guard, though this is somewhat out of their usual. They were very effective in this area (Southern MN) when the WBC was to protest at some the military funerals a few years ago. Please, keep me updated on what you decide, but please, try to get the community, and especially the students, involved in defending themselves in a dignified manner against those who spread the seeds of hate.

"The Laramie Project" in Canton

Hello People,

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) with Rev. Fred Phelps is coming to Canton on Friday March 20th to protest the "Laramie Project" at 900 Washington Street from 1:40 to 2:30 PM. They plan to be in front of Canton High School when the students are exiting. The play opens later that evening at 7:00 PM. My daughter is in this play.

What do you know about this WBC? I have only just learned of their existence. At the risk of lending credibility to this foolish and offensive diatribe, I invite you to Google WBC and check "The Picket Schedule?" posted. Canton is in good company with The State House, the Israel, Brazil, Peru & Mexico Consulates General and Harvard University.

I am not sure what I want to do about this, but I am sure I want to do something. I feel that when this kind of voice is heard silence becomes support. I am confident this person wants to stir trouble and I am confident I don't want that trouble started with or against our high school students.

I cannot lay dormant and allow my children to think this is acceptable or to be tolerated. I am trying to decide what action I might take - if any. I am bringing this to your attention because I am wondering if others feel similar. Agree, disagree or indifferent, I am interested in your response.

Respectfully,
Liz

when is the spring coming

so.  first- when did they start putting the official spring-groundhog in a cage instead of leaving him to his own devices in his own cozy DEN?  second- when did they start dragging him out- thus scaring him enough so that he would, of course, immediately run back into his den (cage) thus making winter last longer?  serves the mayor right for getting bitten this year.  geeez.  i am thoroughly sick of winter.  this all is pertinent to the MFA-IA program because i wish i could be outside more- biking to work in less snow and on top of less ice- and therefore also taking numerous bike rides with my kid (her favorite thing)- which would be more inspirational than looking wistfully at my bike and having theia ask me 18 times a day whether it is warm enough to go biking yet.  to which my answer must always be that we can't go biking when it's icy because it's dangerous.  and really this whole spiel does fit into my semester plan because- i am truly truly missing the part of my day that includes a meditational/calming/whatever ride and gets my head geared up for the thinking and the making of the rest of it.  it reminds me of kneading bread or clay or annealing (relaxing the crystal structure of) metal.  getting the molecules of the bread dough, clay, or silver lined up and ready for processing (baking, soldering, hammering, throwing...).  so:  what do you do when the gym is way too public for the likes of me, and the open trails are too icy, and home gym equipment means that a place in one's apartment must be made for said equipment...?  any thoughts?  i really need to anneal my brain.

also.  speaking of brains- i Really enjoyed the Buddha Mind in Art handout courtesy of Peter. thanks.  i am happily waiting for the library to send me the full text in the mail.  i'll write more later on the resource/annotation part of it to be added to our 'advising resource list' later after i read more from it...until then- maybe ask peter.

Eating an Elephant

Hi all,

I'm heading to Portland, Maine tonight to see an exhibit there, and then in three weeks I'm going to Houston to see other museums. My question: Do any of you have good strategies for maintaining museum stamina? Often when I go to a big museum, I spend a lot of time in the first couple galleries, careful not to miss anything. But after an hour or two, I'm done and I find myself skimming over the rest. I've tried going to websites first, and plotting out my visit so that I see the "important" things while I'm still fresh, but sometimes it's the accidental encounters that leave the biggest impression.

Just wondering if you had any tips.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Warmly,

Karen

Hello Friends

Hello Friemds,

Just catching up with this blog. Returning to a busy life and adding to my workload doesn't open much time for creating new art, but the mind contiues to explore ideas. Having just completed an exercise walk, in this moment, I can only think of "thin" as a weight loss goal.

Later soon,
Liz

Hi to everyone:
I thought I had posted another message, but it has been held hostage in cyber-space (or more likely, I did it wrong.) Karen, I may very well call on your IT experience more than once this semester.

I'm thinking a lot about thin times as they relate for me to art-making being not at all separated from the whole of life. I've been studying Jo Spence, so her work is on my mind (thanks, Peter), and also paying attention to creative process,, and how it works in and for me. The boundaries are permeable, by which I mean an every day occurence, a phrase in a book, a chance conversation may spark an idea that then gets translated into an art piece.

Wishing you a peaceful day,
Susan