VISUAL ARTS DIGITAL UPLOAD – GET STARTED!

HELPING YOURSELF AND/OR HELPING YOUR TEACHER

(PREPARING FOR THE FINAL EXAMINATION/EXHIBITION)

And so, depending on where you are and your teacher – and his/her plans and preparation for the visual arts digital upload – the time has come!

I have to say, from my experience as an examiner this time last year, quite a few teachers were not very well prepared.

Some left it all to the last minute; some had a minimal understanding of the technological issues involved. For example, not knowing how to compress a file etc – some teachers compressed the files so enthusiastically I was left trying make sense of an insanely tiny image (e.g. a 4KB very pixelated thumbnail image).

First of all, time management and a willingness/ability to organize are VITAL.

You could help your teacher here by making good quality digital (of course) photographs of the studio work completed so far. It may be that not everything is selected but it’s better to have too many photographs than not enough.

The maximum file size for each artwork is 500MB

You could also help by documenting required information about each piece. This includes the size, the title, the media and the date of completion. Please take this seriously. 18 pieces all called ‘Untitled’ does not give the examiner very much help. Putting ‘mixed media’ in the ‘medium’ box is equally pointless: what materials/media are you referring to?

Your examiner may be looking at the work of 100+ candidates. It makes sense to make his/her job as easy as possible by providing useful (rather than unhelpful) details of the title, media etc

You could also scan or photograph your best Investigation Workbook pages. Remember, LEGIBILITY is vital. If the examiner can’t read your writing there is not much point in submitting the page. Also remember to cite all sources of information and imagery.

The maximum file size for all your pages (combined into one file) is 20MB

Interview (audio?)

If you or your teacher is opting for an audio interview, again, don’t make things unnecessarily tough for the examiner by – for example – making vague references to the artwork you are talking about.

Examiners complained last May that sometimes they were forced to guess which artwork a candidate was discussing, because it was not named during the interview (see quote, below).

Don’t say things like…

“This is my favourite piece. I like the details and I did a lot of experimentation with ideas and media during the preparation for the final piece.”

(What piece? How will the examiner know?)

CLEARLY STATE THE NAME OF EVERY ARTWORK THAT YOU REFER TO BEFORE OR WHILE YOU ARE DISCSSING IT!

• If you are uploading a video interview remember the maximum length is 15 minutes and file size 500MB

• If you are uploading a statement remember the maximum wordcount is 1000 words and file size 20MB

Good Luck!

Images show artworks by some of my students, with thanks.