Decmber, 20th; Almost Christmas!

Well then, it`s the Christmas Holidays!

And luckily, I`ve got 5 weeks off from University right now so I`ve got some time to just sit and do absolutely nothing until I work. The only thing I`m not looking forward too, is working on Christmas day.

Unfortunately, that is the price that people who work in healthcare have to pay at this time of year; and yes, I`ll be working the early shift in the care home that I`ve been working at since back in March. People take it in turns every year to work shifts at Christmas, so this year I`ll be working the early shift on Christmas day, but next year I won`t have to work Christmas day.
So your one year on, one year off really. I don`t mind it seeing as I`ll be making the lives of those who are ill and lonely, much easier and a lot more cheerful than what would be if there was no one there.

This is going to be my first time working on Christmas day, I`m not particularly looking forward to it seeing as when I get back from work; I would of missed my nephew opening his presents, I would be ready for my Christmas dinner and I`ll most probably be quite tired and not want to play any Christmas party games or drinking games.
But then again, I`m improving the lives of others; if I wasn`t there then who would be?

I would also like to add, that for work I had to complete a unit of work on basic healthcare, safeguarding, health and safety, first aid and adult protection; I managed to complete all 15 modules and have now achieved my Care Certificate!

Besides working over the Christmas period, I have had another photography session where I managed to get 156 photos; pretty soon I`ll try and upload a few of them to my art blog and I`ll also attempt to try and go over the new project.
I`m still a bit confused about my next project as I`m not sure as to what I`m going to produce or how I`m going to produce it over the holidays... But I have a bit of an idea and I should hopefully cover that when it comes to uploading photography.

The next time I update on the Diary blog should be after Christmas day, so until then..
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Have an amazing Holiday, break from work, break from all of that coursework and go get a little bit drunk!

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December, 8th; End of my first semester!

Well, the last week of University has gone extremely quickly; I`m not going to discuss my final piece on here though, I want to save that for my art blog since it`s been a while since I updated on there. Plus, I could do with putting some kind of updated work on there right now...

Tomorrow is my last day at University, before I break up from University for the next five weeks or so. In between that time, I will be given a new module to be working on and I`ll be picking up a few more shifts at my part time job in the care home.

This first semester has been seriously weird for me, University is just a completely different environment that you somehow have to adjust too at the click of a finger.
To begin with, I don`t even live in accommodation, so to get to University it takes me about an hour or so travel time; that`s to walk to the bus stop, get the bus, walk half way through Derby and getting into Uni. Just that in itself is rather tiring, and I have thought about moving out for my second year since I`m not too sure if travelling will be best for me when it comes to producing some more serious pieces of work.

Then the whole studio atmosphere is really strange and hard to get used too.
The 33 of us got split up into three different groups of 11, and my group was completely separated from the the other 2 groups; meaning that we didn`t get too see them that much too start off with. You get a small desk to begin with and the second and third years work busily around you... Just seeing them working gives you some sort of insight into what you`re going to be doing in the upcoming semesters.

Then the lectures, there`s three different lectures and they all come in on different days. Because they`re all in at different times, you have to begin planning out what you`re going to be doing and who`s help you`re going to need on different days. It can also be like that when it comes to the different Technicians, you practically have to hunt them down if you need help since they all get so busy during the day.

The whole University experience has been extremely strange for me, it`s nothing like they tell you it`s going to be... And I do mean that in a good way! It`s just that when the students come round and tell you everything you need to get ready for University, you don`t really need it. It`s like you actually panic for nothing.

You`ll make friends and you`ll lose them even quicker than making them! Fresher`s is bloody pointless, you miss all of the important stuff during your first few weeks and you don`t want to leave your flat at all because of your vomit covered floor and clothes. They big up all of the parties and nights out, but you miss out on vital information, you make drunken mistakes, drunken arguments and then get yelled at for not attending university for the past few days... Fresher`s is literally; get drunk, vomit, get yelled at, vomit some more.

The overall experience for me has been pretty great; I`ve only been out 4 times actually, and each time I`ve gone into university the next day and got on with my work... And each time I`ve swore that I`ll never drink again, that doesn`t work by the way.
The studio space I work in is huge and I love it! Mainly because we`re also based around the second and third years work spaces; so we get to be nosey and talk to them about the course and what we`re going to do over the next few semesters. Since Derby only accepts a small amount of people aswell, we all get our own workspace and a lot of one on one time with the tutors.

Next year, I genuinely don`t quite know what to expect.
I know that the tutors are defiantly taking a huge step back, and we become a lot more independent in the way that we work and what we start to produce. Over the next five weeks that I have off at Christmas, I also need to get quite a bit of journal work finished and I need to begin thinking about what I`m going to begin producing over the holidays.

We need to being working off of two words.
The first word has to like to the Form of what we`ll be producing, for example; 2D, 3D, photography, multi-media.
Then the second word has to be the content.
I`ve already got a few ideas, and I know for definite that I`ll be working with multi-media, but then I don`t know what the content of that work would be... Something like abandonment and then I begin working from photographs of abandoned buildings or abandoned objects that I`ve come across.
Multi-Media Abandonment... Not too sure yet.


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December, 3rd; Deadlines and Stress.

It has been a while since I updated, if you didn`t know I had to work on a week long project which was extremely stressful and time consuming; I did update about that on my art blog, here`s the link:
 http://melonheadamy-artblogging.blogspot.co.uk/

It`s been a very hectic couple of weeks, we`ve had three weeks in total to work on our final, "final" piece of work.
I`m currently on my last week, but as always, I`ve been rather busy with trying to get the majority of my work done. Over the past semester, we`ve done a number of workshops (all of which you can find on the art blog), and within the last 3 weeks of University, we have to combine some of the techniques we`ve been working with into one final piece. So far, all I`ve done is experiment with a lot of ideas and I`ve still not even thought about making a final/refined piece of work ready for hand in.

The worst thing is that my deadline is Friday the 9th, and I`m still thinking of ideas and ways to bring all of my work to a conclusion.
The worst thing is, the only technique I`ve enjoyed working with is the print making. When I was messing around with the prints I made before with the weird bright colours; I want to re-create that again with new prints.

My original objects where 3 different phones, all of different sizes and all have different buttons. After working with the objects and creating work form them, we then had to put the objects into context, so for mine that would be texting, calling or social media. Quite obvious things really.
Now, when everyone goes onto facebook, you immediately see selfies, group pictures, celebrities and pictures your friends and family have posted; the same with any other form of Social Media actually.

Instead of focusing on self image, which would be the first thing you think of when someone mentions social media, I want to focus on what you would get in response to putting a picture of yourself online.
Then, to put this into context; I`ve been gathering messages that have been sent to my personal facebook account, my facebook page, my Instagram and my MeetMe account. I`ve also asked people on my course if they could send me screenshots of messages they`ve been sent; all of the messages I`ve collected have been sent by random people who no one actually knows personally, just random people who`ve messaged us out of the blue.
What I`m working with is actually a topic that does need to be addressed in some way, all of the messages I`ve used are from people who are a lot older than us (some being around 40 years old), these are all harassing messages, messages asking for nudes, messages asking us to perform some kind of sexual task... IT`S SERIOUSLY WRONG! Even my lecturer Carl is slightly confused as to how people can happily send these messages out to just anybody.

What I`m doing is turning something that is instant and private, into a process that takes a lot of time and detail which can then be seen by everyone. Something very private, and very instant is becoming a lengthened process which is made public.
What I`m going to be producing is the exact opposite as to what I`m working with, it`s going to be really hard to finalize the work; plus I`m struggling to find a way to make this whole piece resolved.

A lot of people at the moment do seem quite shocked by what I`m getting through on my phone, and then using. I see this as normal, I get a lot of horrid messages on my phone every single day; so these kinds of words and phrases really aren`t new to me. But a lot of people are a bit shocked by them, and find them quite odd.Which I guess it`s the kind of reaction I want to get out of producing work like this. Another thing is, I still have to work within a framework.. Literally a frame at the moment, out two other lecturers, Dennis and Jeremy have gotten it into everyone`s head that we have to work within a box shape. So now I`m even more confused and lost as to how I should present or finalize my work.

I`ve been very, very lost these past 3-4 weeks or so.
Which is why there have been no blog updates lately aswell.
University does have me very stressed at the moment, and I`m there five days a week and then I have to work at the weekends. It is hard, and I am struggling; time is going by so fast that I haven`t really realized that I haven`t blogged, or reviewed, or uploaded recent photography.
Everything that I had going on before Univeristy does seem to have come to a stand still at the moment, and over Christmas when I`m giving my next module handbook I can imagine it`ll get harder for me to find things to update and write about.



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