Critical and theoretical studies: Self evaluation.
Throughout this semester the thing in which I enjoyed the most, and found the most interesting was our discussions of psychology and all the things related to it, and which we elaborated onto. I have always found psychology very interesting, and so found it very enjoyable when we were able to discuss this in our lessons. As we later went on to talk about psychology in other media, most notably for me, in art and propaganda I became even more fascinated as these are both two things which I have looked at in the past, but now I had a
chance of looking at them in a completely different prospective.
When looking back on things I have learnt about previously, and then looking at them in a different manner, through psychology, and how they effect our minds was something which I will probably continue to do, whether it be a conscious decision or not. Just through learning more about psychology, and discussing it I feel I have learnt a skill for life, as I think I have become more analytical, and look into things a lot deeper than previously.
I found looking into surrealism as something very interesting as well, as with my previous artistic background I have looked at surrealism and even done some surrealist pieces of art work. When we first began looking at surrealism I was already recollecting on artwork I had seen by artists such as Salvador Dali and Max Ernst, and trying to understand the reasons behind surrealism as a movement. Not only did we look at surrealism as an art movement but we also looked into the origins of surrealism, and how it can be linked into the beginnings of psychology, and some ideas from Sigmund Freud. Having already had a past with surrealism, I found these new things which I had learnt very interesting as it tied in with psychology, and my idea of looking at things in different prospective.
Another part of this semester that I enjoyed was looking at propaganda as this is another thing which I looked at previously, when doing A Level history when I had to look at propaganda during the First and Second World War. I mainly found this interesting because we began to look at modern day propaganda, namely the propaganda being used in Libya. This was interesting as I was able to compare how propaganda effected people during earlier wars, and how it is effecting people now, and the difference in effects that this propaganda is having. Through looking at modern day propaganda, I found it very different, as early propaganda was used to almost make a mockery of the opposing countries, mainly making smart remarks at Hitler and the Germans, and making them out to be the devil, or evil through the use imagery, colours and well arranged text. Whereas modern day propaganda seems to be more about bending the truth, and distorting other peoples view through the use of charismatic figures and statistics. Personally I think this huge change in propaganda is due to the media, and how we can turn on the TV, computer or radio and within minutes get live updates from Libya from hundreds of different news correspondents, whereas in earlier times people would have to take what they are being told by their government as the truth, as they had very little reason to questions this, and were almost unable to find any alternative to this.
Overall I think I have learnt a lot through this semester of Critical and Theoretical Studies, but the main thing that I have learnt is looking at things in different ways, and analysing things a lot more and thinking about how they effect me, and others. Through looking at psychology, and gaining a better understanding of it I think it has given me much more than just being able to analysis things better, as I find that I have become more organised, and more prepared when approaching things, including essay writing.
When writing and essay previously I would do very little planning, and be very spontaneous when writing this essay, but now I find myself being more prepared and doing a lot more research and planning before starting to think about how I will structure my essays. My development this semester has been gradual, but personally I think that I have gained a lot from this course so far, and I hope to learn a lot more.
On the whole I really enjoyed CATS this semester, and I think that with the new skills I have learnt will help me with the reminder of my website design course. When looking back at the this semester there is a lot of things which I would have done differently If I were to do them again, the main being to put more time and effort into the work that I had done during this semester of CATS. I don’t think that any of my work was sub standard, but I think that I could have made it better had I just put another 10-20 minutes into it, by doing planning and research.
The weaknesses that I have found are that I tend to rush into things, and often rely on various aspects in order to create a good piece of work. As a person I prefer to get things over and done with, and don’t enjoy doing things over a long period of time, and would rather cram it all into one or two large sessions. I wouldn’t consider this as a weakness because I think that I work better this way, but I can see how spacing this out would be more beneficial, especially when writing essays, and doing work on coding websites.
My strengths that I have found are that I am fiercely dedicated and committed, and give everything 110%. I have always been competitive, even to an extent where I set myself goals when doing my work, to achieve a certain grade or do it in a certain time. Though I often do my work in one massive burst I find this easier because I am so committed to it, and I find it difficult to disconnect from my work once I’ve started. I think that has only become stronger since starting this course, though I find it easier to disconnect, and take breaks now, but I do everything at the best of my ability.
These strengths and weaknesses have helped me throughout my course, mainly when designing websites and I find you need a lot of patience when coding website, and you need to be very dedicated to look though your code and find any errors and correct them where necessary. This course has helped me with my weaknesses as I now find myself more confident when doing work, and find myself being able to space my work out more.
If I was to set myself targets for next semester it would be to continue putting more effort into things, and allow myself to do work over a longer period of time instead of doing it all in one big chunk and to continue with looking into things with different views and perspectives.