Coming to the end of the Research and Communication Skills module and reflecting on all the tasks we’ve done over the past weeks I feel that for the majority of the time I have enjoyed both the weekly lectures and the tasks. I thought that is was a nice break from our usual studies of fashion and textiles, as I found the rotations fairly stressful at times I was looking forward to being able to put that to one side for a couple of hours each week to concentrate on something different.
Task 1/2: How to use online resources
As this was out very first task, even though looking back it is very simple I found it slightly daunting, however once I got into it I found that I quite enjoyed the task. Overall, I think it has broadened my view on online sources such as archives and how easy they are to access, also how beneficial they have now become in my research processes.
Task 3/4: Academic integrity and Plagiarism
This second task I found very interesting as it showed me how fine the line can be between plagiarism/copying and being inspired by someone’s work, whether that be a painting, photograph etc. This task also introduced me to the Harvard referencing system, I had never used this before and find it quite confusing however with more practise I feel I’ll get the hang of it.
Task 5/6: Visual research
I have always liked researching designers so I think that’s why I enjoyed this task. The design house I chose was Dolce and Gabbana, I have always loved their designs so I found looking into their references for garments really inspirational and will be very helpful if I decide to look at them again for another project.
Task 7/8: Reflective writing
This was the task I found most challenging to complete. The academic texts took me a few tries to get through as I haven’t read anything like them in the past. This also made it difficult when writing the task as it took me a while to understand what I was supposed to be writing about. However, it has also introduced me to more sophisticated texts that I am going to challenge myself to read to gain better understanding.
Task 9/10: Ethical Issues
Out of all the tasks I found this one to be the most enjoyable to complete. I think this is because I felt the ethical issues were quite obvious and it was all quite opinion based. I find analysing imagery a lot easier then text as it is more interpretive to the individual. Also, I think that it is a very important subject matter within fashion and I enjoyed the chance to have my say and look at all angles.
Overall, I hope to take a lot of skills I have gained during these few weeks with me onto future projects and tasks to carry on bettering my written and design work and look forward to next semesters tasks.