Month: December 2020

December 11, 2020

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Late yesterday evening, I’d began reading an MA thesis by Peter T Ford, entitled ‘The Compositional Style of Keith Emerson in Tarkus (1971)’. It’s a piece of music that I know very well, and which has accompanied me through life since my mid-teens. Clement Greenberg read music criticism avidly. He appreciated its approach to dealing entirely formally and analytically with…
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December 10, 2020

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7.30 am: The end of first light: 8.00 am: A communion. 8.45 am: Preparations for the day ahead: Chiefly, the final set of third-year painting tutorials. Occasionally there’re moments in the online proceedings when a student goes quiet and still, as though reflecting on some dullard comment that I’d made. Then, I realise, their webcast has frozen. When I freeze,…
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December 9, 2020

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8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: Proof of presence: 8.45 am: I planned the day ahead, as a smokey-screen of thin, neutral cloud drifted (like a mild depression) slowly over my head. 9.00 am: A BA art history dissertation tutorial. I exemplified: I write almost every day. Writing is to thinking what practise is to playing a musical instrument, what…
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December 8, 2020

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8.00 am: 8.15 am: A communion. 8.45 am: I looked over my itinerary for today: a menu of MA fine art tutorials (the last before the Christmas vacation) and consultations, and meetings. Those who are undertaking their degree in full-time mode will be submitting their work for assessment in the first week of the new year. What with all the…
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December 7, 2020

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There’s only this moment, then, this moment, then, this moment, then … . Sunday, December 6. ‘Done!’: Monday, December 8. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: eBayology: A wrapping, packing, and boxing of redundant equipment, and sending to their new homes. 9.15 am: Admin: current student references, former student references, and External Examiner correspondence. (In the background: antiphonal, medieval Christmas…
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December 5, 2020

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Career (definition: ‘An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress’). Career (definition: ‘To move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way’ ). Friday, December 4. 8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: There was some residual admin and preparations to complete before I returned to studio work. There was still much to do in…
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December 3, 2020

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8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: A readying. 8.45 am: Ready to go: The first of the day’s online third year painting tutorials. In the background, our students are being tested for Covid-19 and, if their result is negative, beginning to ship-back home over the next week. It’s like a military manoeuvre. Their return to university will be a further…
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December 2, 2020

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8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: Emailery, postgraduate admin, and preparations for the first hour of the morning. 9.00 am: An initial MA fine art tutorial: 9.30 am: … followed by a pastoral tutorial. 10.00 am: I checked-over a new purchase of active-monitor speakers. These, in conjunction with a sub-woofer, will serve as the main amplification system, both in the…
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December 1, 2020

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7.30 am: 8.30 am: Off to School to wait for the double gallery to be opened so that I could begin the Vocational Practice seminar. I’d time to venture into those parts of the building that I’ve had no cause to visit during this last semester. I felt the ‘ghosts’ of past students who’d walked these corridors: their laughter and…
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