Project title: Translations/Interpretations

This is the PowerPoint I presented for a summative assessment for the module ‘Curating the Public Sphere’ in the academic year 2022-2023. Grades, feedback, and my reflections are at the end.

Grades and Feedback

Grade: 85/100

Graded on: October 10, 2023.

Graded by: Rachel Wilson

Divya, 

Amazing work – an ambitious project and a great presentation. You have identified an issue that is both longstanding and urgent – how to understand and redress the divide between ableist public spheres and those with lived experience of disability/chronical illness/mental illness. It’s fantastic that you have already put the project to work in an ambitious and considered way. This not only shows dedication, but also seems to have deepened your questioning and further informed the potentials for the project. For example, you made excellent use of the strike teach-out spaces, and noted in your presentation the potential impact that facilitation can have on participation (you did this commendably!). That you also trialled the project in online modes (text, Instagram etc.) has ensured accessibility and clarified that this is both a space in which ‘people may be afraid of saying the wrong thing’, and also a potentially safe space in which people can articulate this hesitancy (something that was woven nicely into your PP).  

Your presentation was clear and well designed with a beautiful original artwork. There was a lot packed into the 15-minute presentation time, and it required deep concentration from your audience!

The choice of works informing the project (Goldfish and Things Doctors Say) are apt as materials to further question your themes of translations/interpretations and the potentials and limitations of public/private online spheres respectively. You might find Helen Shaddock’s Lockdown Diaries http://www.helenshaddock.co.uk/lockdown-diaries.html, which are often posted on her Facebook account, and the Dear GP zines https://deargp.home.blog of interest.

You have critically dug into your theoretical sources, engaged with both set reading and independent research. Your analysis of the limitation of Fraser’s notion of counter-publics – in as much as it does not address interactions between such publics and so the impact of the formation of a subaltern counter public – is especially strong. This represents a thoughtful and balanced analysis, piecing together multiple texts to outline your argument – you have identified here a gap for your own further research.

An excellent project! It will be great to see how this plays out both in the written assessment and as a fully realised work.

My Reflections

This was a project from which I learnt a lot. Before I joined Goldsmiths, I watched a lot of uni vlog videos on YouTube, especially ones from people in Art School. An important lesson from those vlogs is to experiment and try things out with an audience. This project was an attempt at just that. Uni, if you have practice before you get to it, is a place to experiment with the things you already know and learn.

I want to continue this project, and I want to build on this aesthetic.