8.00 am: A communion. 8.30 am: To School, and the first of two PhD fine art tutorials. It thrills me to see both the student and their topic deepening. What is the nature of supervision at this level? Quite apart from providing subject and disciplinary knowledge, and advising on methodology, rigour, and progress, the task can embrace dimensions of service that at the core of our common humanity. Supervisor are tutee and tied together like two climbers assailing a sheer ice-face. Both are moving in the same direction and face the same perils. If one or the other loses their footing, then both tumble.

I suspect that someone outside of the field, eavesdropping on the discussion, would be bemused and its circuitous passage from subject-specific topics to personal anecdote to confession to tears (sometimes) to the biggest issues of existence, and back again. An hour’s engagement can be thoroughly exhausting, emotionally and intellectually, for both participants. A fragment from Eileen:

11.00 am: The PhD fine art brigade held their first ‘clandestine’ gathering, under my oversight, to discuss a matter of common import and advantage. Suffice to say, this is a new endeavour at the School, unwelcoming to the uninitiated, and strictly by invitation only. We were never there.

12.15 pm: Off to Medrus 1 (in the planetary system of Sol, I’d venture) at Pantycelyn/Penbryn (work that one out), for the annual Postgraduate Fayre. I set-up, took a bite to eat, and talked over issues related to work and parenthood with some old friends. 1.50 pm: The visitors began to arrive:

All those whom I engaged were ‘non-standard’ potential applicants, to a man and woman. They’re considering the MA Fine Art having either not undertaken a BA Fine Art or else having studied in an area other than the one they are intending to pursue. For example, several had studied illustration and graphic art and wished to move into painting. I suspect that this trend is set to grow in future years. People are, now, jumping careers in their late 20s and 30s. Nothing wrong with that, in principle. However, as a School, we need to be certain that they’re convinced of the need and possessed of the requisite aptitude for transition. But this phenomenon also makes me ponder what the BA Fine Art equips a student with in readiness for MA study, and whether those attributes can be substituted by experiences gained elsewhere. 4.00 pm: Homeward.

4.20 pm: Catch up on emails. 7.30 pm: Research admin: requests to examine, possibilities to explore, and plans to implement. I wrote to one of my former collaborators: ‘Could we do something again, but in an entirely different way?’  (I liked the openness of the proposal and closedness of the stricture.) My thoughts have returned to the visual and sonic improvisational exercises that Adam (who is studying for a PhD Fine Art at the School, presently) and I’d conducted in 2011 and 2012:

With Adam Blackburn at LiveArt: Dialogues: Improvisation Through Drawing and Sounding, School of Art, Aberystwyth University (October 14–15, 2011)

With Adam Blackburn at LiveArt: Dialogues2: Improvisation Through Drawing and Sounding, School of Art, Aberystwyth University (November 14, 2012)

Was there, in these efforts, a point of departure for something to come? I’m drawn to the sound of handwriting as a starting point. Beyond that … . One can never move other than forwards.