Hi
Here are some thoughts
sparked by Module One, first task. Module Twos and Module Threes please read
this because these are not thoughts in terms of tips for passing Module One,
they are ideas about the layers you can find in the work. Don’t think of a module
ending and that’s it. The ideas introduced in each module has something to
offer whatever stage you are at. Ideas are introduced in a module as tools ways
of looking at things. These are tools we are hoping you will use on-goingly;
throughout this course and into your work arena and beyond your time at
Middlesex!!
So I am looking at some
ideas introduced in Module One, but this should be relevent to everyone on the
course.
The CV
We ask you to use your CV as
a starting point for posting / thinking about introducing yourself and what
your experiences is. Page 11 in the Module One handbook states.
‘You should take your current professional CV and rewrite as a profile
improving on its quality and Upload this as your blog profile.’
Why are we asking you to do this:
because we want you to start to see your Self in different contexts. To see
yourself beyond how you were positioned in your prior learning environment and
start to see yourself in terms of the different parts of YOUR life. Part of
doing this is to start thinking about what you ‘have done’ which is what a CV
narrates. See my previous blog posts on this.
Positioning
of Self
(October 10th 2010)
(Re-thinking this might be really
useful people starting Module Two to give your self a ‘what have I just done
moment’ and to contextualise any feedback you have just got from the work you
just handed in (your assessed work)).
So here is what is happening
for me. I feel really uncomfortable that you could feel encouraged to just post your ‘audition’ CV. I don’t
like the details such as dress size, you SHOULD NOT post your street address as most CVs have at the
top. I think it is kind-a icky to have some of those details which are about
costume fittings or ‘look’ (like brown eyes etc…) on your blog which is open
access to anyone who finds it. But then you are not being asked to do
this directly because how relevant is that kind of CV to this context. I want
to encourage you to think about the message and appropriateness of the CV you
post in the context of an open-access, learning blog.
Hopefully you will look at
it and develop something new for this context. The ‘about me’ part of the Blog
sort of serves as a CV area too. You could post about the process you took and
use the actually CV you develop as your ‘About me’ content. The point is to
question what it will be like for people coming across your blog. What
experience will they have of you, since the blog might be the only experience
they have of you. It is not just what you want to say because you know much
more of the story behind the intentions you have as you make your blog. It is
also about stepping ‘outside’ yourself to imagine how you are experienced. THIS
IS THE BEGINNING OF ETHICS.
A chunk of Ethics is
introduced in Module Two so module Twos and Threes what do you think of the
above in terms of how you are approaching ethics?
Although formally introduced
in Module Two it is sooooooo important to note that everything we do, every
decision we make has something to say within the realm of ethics. Because
experience is transactional there is inter-play you are experienced as
something… ethics is about looking at how you or what you create or do are
experienced.
In this case you can ask
yourself questions about why you chose the photo you chose to represent you on
your blog. Does it actually look like you? Is it what you were told was a good
headshot? Did you choose it because you like to think of yourself that way?
What does it say about what you want to appear as? How you want to be
experienced? How is it an ‘ethical’ representation of you??? what other things have you considered: are you put off posting on your blog because of your spelling and you don't want spelling mistakes to represent You? What things do you consider in other contexts (at auditions, at work...). do you think to think of yourself as a 'good' person!
You can ask similar
questions about how you construct a CV for your blog. What pressures do you feel
you have to conform to? Where is honesty in the representation of your Self? Is
it possible to represent your Self ever? Is it more about learning to being
what people want you to be in different parts of your life?
Module Twos these questions
are important to you because you are starting to take your ideas (questions)
out beyond your own Reflective work (journals and blog posts) and looking at
literature, peers and other professionals to see what they think – but at the
same time you can be thinking about these questions of representation, transaction,
how things are experienced through thinking about how much value you put in
information from different people because of how they appear to you. How you
experience them. How much you and what you put out alters what you receive /
perceive.
Module threes this resonates
with you because of course you are starting to be out in the field talking,
interviewing reading and you can think about how much of You, you are gathering and how much of the ‘other person’ or ‘other’
idea it is possible for you to gather. How does the way to approach people
change what you see or hear in them? I do not think you are looking for a neutral
way to do this but instate to note down the impact you think you have on an
encounter as being as important as the conversation / information you get from
an encounter.
So what do you think? How
has this post come across?? What do you think of thinking of ethics as ‘How you
are experienced’?
Adesola
