re: presentations

hi folks.

i just thought i'd stick my tuppence-worth in here, as regards some comments robert made towards the end of his 'presentations' post:

I did recieve one particular critique of my piece at one point, which for the most part I disagreed with, I felt that the points being made were invalid and showed a distinct lack of vision. The use of words such as "this is all wrong" and "it should be like this" made me feel demotivated and a bit insulted....that such a person could be that bound to the unwritten rules.

i know that presentations can be a bit disheartening at times; you work on something for weeks until you think you've got it just right.  then you present it to the class and it seems like everyone just queues up to knock it.  trust me, we know what that feels like.  dinnae forget that alex, griff and me have all been there too, when we were students.  we've all suffered the joys of standing up at the front of the room, having our work ripped to shreds by our classmates and tutors.

[when you actually go out in the commercial world it's even worse - but that's another story!]

speaking with my tutor hat on; the problem for us is that we're constantly trying to think of ways we reckon your work could be improved. that disnae mean we think it's rubbish to begin with - far from it. i think we've said several times that we're very impressed with the standard of work that your year group is producing. but, since we've usually got a whole class's worth of presentations to get through in one session, that necessarily means that we've got to 'cut to the chase' and get directly to the point.

unfortunately that usually means that during most presentations you'll tend to hear more about what's wrong with your piece than what's right with it.  that's just a sad fact of life.  it has ever been thus and it ever will.  [you should also bear in mind that human nature dictates that if someone makes half a dozen positive comments on something we've done and one or two negative ones, we'll tend to only remember the negatives].

all that said, i dinnae think we would ever say something like the  "this is all wrong" or the "it should be like this" which robert quotes. we will certainly suggest things which could have been done differently and we'll point out parts which we think didnae work as well as other parts of a piece of work,  but i really cannae remember ever saying something as downright negative as the above. this is art after all.  there are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers.

and finally, remember it's the marks you get at the end which count. not a few throwaway comments made during a presentation. so chin up folks.  get working hard on the infographics brief - and we can go through this all once more, at the next presentation....  when we tell you what a terrible mess you've made of it all again!

comment || digg this || add to reddit || add to delicious || add to technorati