The Practitioner Enquiry module is all about the student taking control of their professional activities; I will need to demonstrate self-direction and problem-solving, gain experience in a professional setting, and develop my reflective in-action skills. The learning outcomes for this module are as follows:
- Propose and plan a negotiated industry project/placement to develop enterprising, entrepreneurial and/or professional knowledge and skills.
- Develop and contextualise a line of enquiry appropriated by key theoretical knowledge and processes.
- Undertake and critically reflect on relevant tasks and experiences gained during industry, enterprise and/or professional development.
- Evaluate project experiences and professional outcomes gained during industry, enterprise and/or professional development.
For my enquiry, I will be mentored by my tattoo artist, Natasha, and I will be producing a tattoo portfolio for her whilst learning about the tattoo industry and observing her process. I have completed mock and live briefs during my previous course and created a portfolio of my own work before. However, I have never designed for tattoos, nor have I considered what would make a good tattoo, therefore I will need to both do some extensive research on tattoo history and relevance within cultures, as well as collecting frequent feedback and advice from my mentor. I have put together a few of my own aims and objectives for this module too:
- Communicate with an industry professional.
- Work on idea generation.
- Learn about the industry.
- Build confidence in project management.
- Link theory and practice.
- Develop evaluation and reflective skills.
I have decided to follow Jasper’s (2013) reflective model throughout my enquiry reflections, as it is not too complicated yet it should cover all aspects that I need to think about, I have used Kolb’s Learning Cycle in the past but I found it made things more arduous than it needed to be. Jasper’s model includes three steps; experience, reflection, and action. This will help me as it will provide a structure to my evaluations and assist in project management in terms of planning ahead – I will start with an experience, either something I have already come across or something new; then I’ll reflect on that experience, whether it was positive or negative, what I’ve learned, etc; and finally I can take action in my work.
I met with Natasha this week and discussed what our plan was, I made a rough weekly plan of what each blog post could be about and shared it with her. We have decided to take things a couple of weeks at a time as my plans are very loose and circumstances may change. I wanted to produce a mini literature review on the context of this enquiry, so both my mentor and I are currently collecting resources to use for this. In my literature review, I am hoping to cover some tattoo history, significance in different cultures, females in the industry, and perhaps some traditional and modern portfolio tips and examples.
Throughout the enquiry, I am going to need to use my already acquired skills and knowledge as well as attaining some new skills and knowledge along the way. Skills that I already have that will help are my organisation and planning skills, communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills. However, despite being very organised, I do need to work on my time management abilities as I have struggled in the past when I approach the end of the projects. I have also never collaborated with someone, whether creatively or theoretically, so while I am good with teamwork, this will still be a new experience. I don’t think I have commercial awareness either, so my research into the tattoo industry should cover this, as well as my mentor’s input on her own experience. I am commencing this research as both an individual with a collection of tattoos as a form of expression and as someone with personal connections to tattoo artists. I also have relationships with other tattooed persons that can provide me with some research.
Reference List
Models of Reflection. (no date) Available at: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/reflectivepracticetoolkit/models (Accessed: 13 April 2023).
Tianna Gray Illustration 