Do ya research!

Research for me, is the hardest damn thing in the world. It can take a long time to finish my research processes, and actually see where I am heading with these. I think for me it is very important that I push myself to develop on my thoughts, and accomplish a strong concluding point. For me, my conclusions are often some of my biggest weaknesses, and that is mainly due to lack in background research. To focus on my ideas, I must proceed in the examination of my concepts, and find out how these relate to the things I am reading and viewing.

When starting any kind of research based task such as an essay or assignment, I usually start off with a brainstorm. A kind of map that spits out all of my ideas and thoughts around a certain topic that I have chosen. Each thought can branch out into another, and from this I can begin to sift out and pick the most important ponts from all of the chaos. soon after, I may hop onto the internet to get a basic idea of someting that I am trying to research (like a book, event or artist model). I say a rough idea because the internet often warps the truth a little. Once I am certain about what kind of things I am looking for I could move onto a library to get further information on these details. And sometimes, a few straighter details than the internet.

This makes me think back to something which Grant told us in today's lecture. Colonialism. Settlers coming into New Zealand, and building their own structures and government with no real knowlege of the land. They hadn't even thought about the phisicality of New Zealands hilly atmosphere before they decided to plonk a pre-designed road layout over the top. What they did, was take a chunk of road from edinburrugh, copy and duplicate it onto a part of Dunedin. They only built from the things they knew. Even street names were exactly the same. The only problem was that by merely duplicating what they knew without any real research, the grid shaped road, suited for a flat type of landscape was a total missmatch to the bumpy curves of New Zealand.

This is how I see my work. If I only thought about ideas in my head, and wrote duplicates of the things I already know, I am going to end up with a pile of useless, insufficient reasearch. I wont be able to extend on my thoughts, or back up ideas with new knowledge or quotes. My research will be rather one sided, having only one point of view, and possibly a few twisted truths. If I were to talk about someone I didn't know at all like Charles Dickens, and wrote about him in an essay without background investigation saying, well he was a guy who wrote a book about something. it's obvious that I will fail my essay. My content has to be explained and justified.

For me, my X factor would come from watching and looking. Seeing things, and consuming as much visual information as I can handle. I am a visual learner. And this is most likely why I would get a bigger kick out of a book of photos, rather than a thick paperback. I also like to physically research. Go places and look. Take in the atmosphere. I may go to the place in which I am going to set my phototshoot, and take a few snapshots, so that I can further think and plan out how I am going to approach the task at hand. I find joy in finally concluding what my ideas are, and how I am about to portray these.