MMAM（FTP） Coursework Module Assignment Six Tutor’s Report, 17 May 2024

MMAM ( FTP ) Coursework Module: Assignment Six Tutor’s Report, 17 May 2024

Brief: Design a new CV , webpage or social-media profile that sells you as an employee or a freelance creative. It will represent you and your work going forward.

Overview: For their final coursework assignment I want the group to think beyond the walls of Royal Hastings. Any graduate of this MA will take their skills learned into the corporate world, fully prepared for a new career as a creative professional. This assignment is designed to refer them back to the start of the course and reflect on how far they have come. I am delighted to say that each and every student – despite being busy with their final project and essay – completed the assignment in good time and with impressive flair and commitment.

Jemisha Badhuri

Jem intends to start a business making soundscapes for public spaces. For this assignment she created a webpage laying out her skills, accompanied very cleverly by a soundscape to illustrate her progress on this course. It’s a bright, airy, experimental work that gently slides into a darker, more mysterious and intriguing experience. I found myself shivering as it played, as if an insect were crawling down my neck. Jem’s key qualities are her ambition and determination, which together ensure she overcomes any obstacle in her way. She maintains a forward-thinking and optimistic outlook – reflected in the ‘About me’ page she created for this project, on which she states: ‘I gained a Distinction in my MA in Multimedia Art at Royal Hastings.’ Grade: A

Patrick Bright

Patrick has discovered resin art and especially the joys and challenges of preserving organic matter. He drew a picture of the webpage he hopes to create for a new business preserving flowers as paperweights. At this stage I would have liked to see the actual page, but Patrick has not yet mastered FlowHand 11. His CV was similarly sparse and doesn’t even include his name! I’m afraid Patrick is drained by his work on the final project, so his grade is based on his previous work. Grade: C.

Jonathan Danners

Jonathan chose to make a PowerPoint sales presentation featuring his photography, which for me indicates that his role as leader of the final project is taking its toll. My theory was borne out by the subject matter he chose: funeral photography, a business he has no intention of starting. His images depict graves, churches, coffins and hearses. I asked how these represented his MA journey and he said, ‘They don’t. Sights don’t exist that would ever illustrate that.’ When I explained I’d have to mark him down and suggested that he resubmit, he made no effort to do so. Instead he said funerals will be a thing of the past one day and his work will be considered a historical document. Grade: C

Alyson Lang

Busy with the final project and her own high-profile commissions, Alyson proved unable to submit anything for Assignment Six. However, I hope to receive a special-consideration form to this effect and have marked her based on previous work. Grade: A

Ludya Parak

Ludya created a social-media campaign for her existing design business. I would have liked her to venture out of her comfort zone, but she chose only to update her existing website with a few images from the work she’s produced on this course. Her submission was accompanied by a special-consideration form that requested I take into account her childcare issues and matters of a personal nature that she didn’t wish to divulge. Without the form, I would have marked her assignment with a D. Grade: C

Cameron Wesley

Despite ongoing ill health, Cameron managed to submit a new CV and an oil-on-canvas piece depicting a seed germinating, unfurling, growing and budding. A very beautiful image to illustrate how the course has reconnected him to the important things in life. His progress on this course has been exponential and he is by far the most-improved student, demonstrating the value of this MA for corporate professionals hoping to build on their skills, expand their awareness and connect with the mental-health benefits of exploring their creativity. Grade: A

Jem Badhuri’s Doodle Diary, 18 May 2024:

So at some point I’ll turn my diary entries into a long essay, but first: document what happened today. According to Google, Alyson works in a flexible studio space in Guildford. It’s called ReMerge because it’s on the site of an old industrial building. Finding that out was easy; my main task was to convince Dad to take me there, so I approached it with the angle that this new space for creative professionals is the thing to see right now. Going there to experience it for myself will improve my result by, oh, at least a grade. He could always stop off at restaurants in the area and scout for clients.

So this morning we set off. Dad refuses to use the M25 and took the scenic route. For other people that might mean passing landmarks, but for Dad it means pointing out all the restaurants that don’t have a genuine Tandoor oven. Or at least that’s how it seems.

I try to prepare Dad for me visiting ReMerge alone, but it ends in complete embarrassment. I say, casually, ‘You wait in the car, Dad. It’s best I go in. That way I can get talking to other young people without a Boomer in tow.’ He goes silent and I can tell he’s not happy. ‘Is it a boy, Jem? Because if you have to chase a boy to Guildford, he’s not worth it.’ I hesitate for a sec, in case that might be a better lie to tell, but explain that I’m looking for the workspace a fellow MA student uses – a girl. I’m here to look for a girl.’ I don’t think Dad knows lesbians exist, because this reassures him immediately. ‘You’re special to me and you need someone extra-special, Jem. I don’t want you to get hurt.’ We drive the rest of the way in silence. OMG , how embarrassing. However, eventually we arrive.

So ReMerge is a large, echoey space with clean air and people who seem to be wandering about in bare feet. Dad stays in the car, but I know he parks so that he can see me inside. They have no front desk. I walk in and stop, but no one asks what I’m doing there. Finally a young man breezes past and I stop him with an ‘Excuse me, can someone help?’ It makes me cringe. I hate that word.

There’s a flurry of activity as I’m passed from one resident artist to the next. Typically, they all cite someone else as a better person to help, but finally I’m taken to Alyson Lang’s ‘space’.

There’s no security here at all. What if I was here to steal her corporate clients? Damage her work? Anyway I’m shown to a chair, and the vague girl with rattling bracelets who has brought me the final distance says she ‘thinks’ Alyson is in, and if she can find her, she will tell her I’m here. She doesn’t even ask my name.

Ding a text from Dad to see if I’m OK. I go to reply, but there are footsteps behind me. Unfamiliar footsteps.

‘Hello, I’m Alyson Lang. Can I help?’ An unfamiliar voice, or is she just on her best behaviour?

‘Alyson? It’s me, Jem. I was passing with my dad and thought I’d drop in to say hi.’

‘Sorry, do I know you?’

It was her all right. Alyson Lang, professional artist and rising star of 2013. Only it wasn’t the mouthy golden girl with the flexible approach to marriage that I’ve been on a course with for the last eight months.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Gela, 20 May 2024:

Jem Badhuri

There’s something I need to talk to you about.

Gela Nathaniel

I’ll be in the studio all day tomorrow.

Jem Badhuri

I’d rather do it over Doodle, so there’s a record of our conversation. Just in case.

Gela Nathaniel

Fire away.

Jem Badhuri

I don’t believe Alyson is working on a big-bucks commission. It’s my calculated guess that something happened to her in Somerset.

Gela Nathaniel

Jem, that’s an awful thought. What makes you say that?

Jem Badhuri

You haven’t seen her, not in four months, have you? Have you even spoken to her on the phone?

Gela Nathaniel

I have. I’m sure I have. I must have.

Jem Badhuri

Jonathan knows. Patrick knows. The others, I’m not so sure. But there was something about that trip – that old radio they brought back.

Gela Nathaniel

An old radio came here by accident and was returned almost immediately. Look, Jem, the final project is at a crucial stage. You’re doing well and – between you and me – you’re on course for a Distinction if you knuckle down and focus. I’ll look into Alyson’s whereabouts and confirm she’s well, but I’m sure it’s nothing for you to worry about.

Jem Badhuri

I’ve already looked for Alyson Lang and found her in a studio in Guildford. It’s her older sister’s whereabouts we need to look into. Suzie Lang. Or, as she’s been known for the last ten years, Suzie Danners.

Jem Badhuri’s Doodle Diary, 20 May 2024:

I don’t have a sister, but if I did, I wonder if she’d be as different from me as Suzie is from Alyson? The real Alyson is lovely. I perched on her saggy old settee and sipped scalding tea from a chipped mug covered in textured paint smears. She was so nice I forgot my cover story and blurted out exactly why I was there.

‘Do you realise someone on an MA course at Royal Hastings is using your identity?’

There was a long silence. The real Alyson exhaled. She said yes, she did know, but that she didn’t mind. Her sister desperately wanted to do the course and didn’t think she’d get a place otherwise. I might have believed her, if it weren’t for her voice. I can’t even describe it, but when people lie, it changes the strength of their voice. I wondered what to say next, but Alyson spoke first, and in an urgent whisper.

‘Do you know where Suzie is?’

This is the first time I’ve heard someone else admit that ‘Alyson’ is missing.

‘She hasn’t been in the studio for ages,’ I said and wondered if I should tell her the others pretend that she’s there when she’s not.

‘She stopped taking my calls months ago,’ the real Alyson tells me. ‘I went round to their flat, but they’d moved out. I’ve messaged, but the responses aren’t like her at all. You must understand something about Suzie and me. We’re more than close. Nothing can break our bond, but the last time I spoke to Jonathan, he said not to contact them any more – that they’re working on something that could change the world.

My sister is the strongest person I know. She wouldn’t let anyone speak for her, not even him. But they’re both so … I don’t know where either of them would ever draw the line.’ She stopped herself saying any more, but I could tell there were tears in her eyes.

As I left the studio and was about to make my way back through the noisy, chaotic building, Alyson stopped me and said, ‘Did Suzie ever mention AetherGen to you?’

AetherGen? The climate-change group who block roads and damage buildings. When I said as much, Alyson dropped her voice to a whisper.

‘They have a new leader who’s committed to rather more than that, and I’m afraid Suzie might be under his spell.’

‘Alyson – I mean Suzie – isn’t under anyone’s spell; if anything, everyone seems to be under hers.’

‘I hope I’m wrong,’ Alyson sighed, but all the way back to the car five of her words rang in my ears. ‘Nothing can break our bond.’