I met with my first supervisor for a very helpful meeting mainly discussing the assignment I had produced for the New Materialisms and Realisms module.  She was pleased to see the 3000-word articulation of my PhD which provided her with a much better sense of what my work is about, and the direction of travel, than I had been able to verbalise in previous meetings.

My intention is to produce a further 3000-word piece focussing on some of my images and bringing to bear some of the academic concepts and ideas outlined in Part 1.  I also plan to crystalise the research methodology and methods closely allied to the philosophical base of my academic work and photographic practice.

I talked her through the idea I have for using ten constructs as a means of describing Object-Oriented Photography – evaluating and developing my practice and with the potential for others providing feedback on my work and developing their own practice.  She felt this was a helpful development particularly in terms of providing a practical outcome to my thesis.  She suggested that workshops with a research focus might be a way to test the idea and gain feedback on the constructs.  We spoke again about the possibility of Focus and/or Peer Groups and 1-2-1 interviews and conversations.  These are methods I need to reflect on and make decisions about before my upgrade meeting.

We spoke about the timing of my upgrade meeting in the context of the written work I have done and have planned for the next few weeks.  She confirmed that scheduling a date in September for the upgrade meeting provides plenty of time to develop and refine my writing and thinking.

I have renewed motivation that I am on the right track and the significant amount of work I have done to date is bearing fruit.  It is now a case of bringing the narrative together in a coherent and engaging way . . .