below is the awesome email response i got today from my assigned "aib buddy" (adv. student big brother's newbee in program). she was a blessing to me at residency. i am not citing her name here since i do not know if i trust the privacy of blogs.
this is a cut & paste of her response on my"thought papers." she is an awesome painter & is now in the process of writing her thesis during her last semester at aib.
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These are a few suggestions, off the top of my head:
Carry a notebook with you at all times. I would often get ideas in the car and ask my daughter to jot down thoughts while I was driving. Carry a camera with you, too! Take photos, gather images, sketch, jot down ideas...lots of gathering.
Always connect readings as closely as you can to your own art practice. Pick out the parts that relate to your own work. Try to be proactive in finding books/essays/artists for yourself that are relevant, because no advisor knows your work better than you yourself.
Take notes while reading. I found that underlining works best for me, then I can see the context when I look them over later. In the case of a library book, I would write notes on the computer, including page numbers and bibliographical info.
Use the Internet! A lot...check amazon.com and other sources for book reviews before you invest time and money on a particular text. Look up terms, authors, philosophers, etc. Try the online dictionary of etymology (look up the origins of important terms for great insights). Use the google image search. Make a lot of bookmarks for yourself. If you are reading a difficult text, look up the author and see if you can find essays that help provide some context, understanding, and approaches to the author's work. That helped me a lot.
Track down references to other thinkers/writers/philosophers who interest you and seem relevant. After you settle into a area of interest, they all start referencing each other in an amusing way.
Don't be afraid to give an honest and insightful negative critique of a book, author, artist, etc.
A truly diverse postmodernist condition allows almost any approach to art to thrive, and gives you plenty of ammo to defend almost any position. So go for it.
Interlibrary loan is your best friend. My local library had nothing I needed, but could get particular books if I requested them (eventually).
Get started using MLA citations right away: lots of my thought papers are ending up in my thesis and it sure saves time having the author/page number/bibliographic info already entered into the text. Write complete bibliographies so you can reference them later.
My only regret is that I didn't research more contemporary artists...I was late in locating myself in the contemporary art world, as I tend to research historically. Locating yourself in contemporary art discourse is extremely important in this program. Actually, I do have another regret: getting so involved in the reading and writing that I didn't paint as much as I could have. It's a balancing act.
In past semesters, I did not ever write a reflective piece that focused on crit theory, lectures, issues that came up during the residency, or anything like that, though a few references to crit theory came out here and there in my papers. I just read books and wrote about them, though I did hear that other people were assigned papers to reflect on the residency. Other people wrote papers on specific artists, which I've never done.
The readings can become a labyrinth. Don't get lost! Try to test everything by relevance and your own excitement of discovery...don't read something just because someone told you to. If it sucks, don't waste time. Set it aside and find something that makes you feel inspired. The connections between your work, your life, your history, other artists, and your readings should become stronger and more fascinating as you continue through the program.
In thinking about connecting your readings to your work, you can study
1) the tradition of your activity (such as mixed-media, installation, painting, performance, whatever)
2) the material of your work: your medium
3) artists who have some connection to your work
4) philosophers or theorists who write about your issues
5) do a little cross-training and look into other disciplines, such as science or music. This all really depends on what you have done and want to do. What came up during the crits and from your adviser should give you some great ideas to get going.
But...you always have to test these ideas against your own deeply held values and obsessions.
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