BAPP Task 4b: Developing my own Special Interest Group (SIG)

The task 4b of the Module 1 of the BA (Hons) in Professional Practice at the Middlesex University consists of developing my own Special Interest Group (SIG) by identifying within the programme other students who have similar interests using different methods to search such as tag clouds, conversations, blogs…. It is important that I ensure that they are part of my professional community and that I maintain contact and that I communicate with them. Also I should be blogging around the questions that are emerging from the interaction with my SIG (s).

First, I would like to say, that I believe that to create your own Special Interest Group (SIG) is key in order to develop yourself as an artist. It will help you grow, not only in quantity, but also in quality and you will be able to achieve your goals and surpassed them. In my case, since I launched my first Solo Project last year, The Reborn Tour 2016, I started to understand how important is this, because I wasn´t only the dancer of it, I was also my own director & creator. I started to develop my own SIG without even knowing it, until I finish the project and I realised what I had created in such a short amount of time. 3 months after I started my second Solo Project, Fusion Tour 2017, where I decided to establish my SIG by creating the first Official Partnerships for my projects, as you can see in the photo below of the poster of this project that I published early this week.

Official Poster, of my second solo project Fusion Tour 2017

Now that I am immersed in the Module 2 of the BAPP at the Middlesex University, and we are asked to create our SIG in order to develop our final project in Module 3, it is really interesting how I will create a different one from the one that I have already establish to develop my Solo Projects, but that somehow they will be connected in the early future. Firstly, I have created the Google + Community How to develop your Creativity, (https://plus.google.com/communities/113750269749985206199), so I can connect with all the fellow students of the course that are interested in this topic as I am, and I can share with them all the information related with my research in this module as well as use their advices on it and their experience on creativity: How they are inspired, what resources they use to develop their work and much more

Screenshot of my Google + Community How to develop your Creativity

To end this task, I would like to say, that I would like to expand my Module 3 Project Special Interest Group (SIG) outside the university, and how interesting will be to develop this research at the end of the module with professionals of the arts, after I have the ethics approval from the Course Staff that we are required in Part 5 and also it would be really exciting to get together both of these SIGs in my following professional projects. And don´t forget to join my Google + Community, How to develop your Creativity, for updates on this exciting process!

Gonzalo

BAPP Task 4a: Developing my Lines of Inquiry

The task 4a of the Module 2 of the BA (Hons) in Professional Practice at the Middlesex University consists of reviewing Reader 4 on Professional inquiry and develop a set of questions that are relevant to my practice.  After these questions should be blogged and using the Blog “Comments” function, developing these questions further collaborating with other students and if possible with people outside the BAPP Programme (Friends, co-worker…). Also the reflection of this process should be poster in our Blogs.

ENBS Dissertation Cover, June 2014

In the Task 2d: Inquiry in the Module 1, I already answered a few questions that were really interesting to analyse my professional in order to start to develop bigger lines of inquiry. Now that am about to start this new Module and start to research what my Inquiry Topic will be about, I looked back at to use them as a starting point to explore further through the relation between Art & Science. My first approach of this relationship was 2 years and a half ago when I did my Dissertation, my final work at the English National Ballet School in London, under the topic of How has Wayne McGregor used Science to develop his choreography in the 21^st century dance? You can see above a photo of the cover of the dissertation, and if you go to my Academia.edu Profile you will find there my whole dissertation.

An example of the Art-Science Relationship through creativity

Now I am starting to develop my final work for this BAPP Course that will be presented at the beginning of next year so I can obtain my BA (Hons) in Professional Practice by the Middlesex University. For my ENBS Dissertation I studied and research the work of one specific choreographer, Wayne McGregor, through the analysis of two male solos from two different pieces, Entity (2008) and Dyad 1909 (2009). This analysis gave me the key to research how he used the relationship Art-Science to create his pieces. However now that I want to explore further this relationship I need to research it through a different path, and this is why this module is about, and why it is so useful to me, through the different tasks I will read, analyse and research different ways that I could explore so by then of it I will have deepen enough my knowledge to choose what my Inquiry topic will be about.

First I will start, asking myself a series of questions that will be relevant to start my Art-Science Relationship research, so I can analyse in which point I am at this moment and where to go next:

- Why I am interested to study the relationship Art-Science through a different path?

Since always I have been fascinated about this relationship, therefore when I got the opportunity to do my own research for my Dissertation at ENBS, I had no doubt that It will be about it, back at then I studied the work of one choreographer that has introduced this into his creations, however now I will choose another path.

- What I want to explore through the research?

Now I want to explore a different path of the relationship of Art-Science, because I have studied the work of somebody else before, I think that It will be much more interesting if I study my own work now, therefore how I apply this relationship into my own creations, therefore I will study my own creativity and how this relationship influences and inspires me to develop my work.

- How this research will affect my own work?

After this research, I will be able to see what is behind my own thinking, so I will understand why I create, the reason of it, as well that will give me the key to continue developing my work as an artist, not only by inspiration or intuition, but also and more importantly, with a knowledge and understanding of what I am doing.

- Where Do I want to develop my research?

As I am dancer based in Riga at The Latvian National Ballet and a part- time student at the Middlesex University in London, these are the two initial cities that I will be developing my research, however my idea is to include also my hometown in Spain, Zaragoza. Therefore, for this project I would like to create it through a partnership between several institutions that I am working, studying or collaborating for.

- How Do I intend to study and represent this relationship in my research?

As a dancer I already explored this relationship when I created a solo for myself, The Reborn, that I danced for my first Solo Project last year in Spain & Latvia, using a painting by Kandinsky and the Fibonacci Spiral, so that could be one starting point. A relationship means connection, and in my opinion the connection between Art and Science is a symbiosis, and a result, appears creativity. Therefore, for my research, when I will explore and study my own creativity, I will research from 2 different points of view (An artistic one, through the analysis of my choreographic process and a scientific point, through the analysis of my articles that I have written)

- What resources are important to develop my research?

I will start with the Middlesex Library, as provide our tutor provide us a link to enter it. Also I will use the magnificent National Library of Latvia, that I already have become a member of, and I will start to look online to explore the different scientific journals that cover my topic, so I can start to deepen on it ,to be able to have a much more concrete one by the of the Module.

After creating and answering those questions, I have a much more clear understanding of what I want to develop and create as my final project to get my Degree: How the relationship art-science is developing and inspiring my own creativity as an artist,  it  will a really exciting process to go through to see what comes up from all of this at the end of the course.

Gonzalo