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Portfolio

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https://20114328.wixsite.com/zoesmith

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FMP

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Stage 2 Altered States

Altered States Part 2

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Stage 1 Picture House

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In order to display my FMP work in a way that I like, I decided to make a new padlet dedicated to my FMP. I will update this padlet regularly with both big and small developments as my project evolves.

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On the 24th of November, I went to UCA Farnham for a taster day. Since I had already been for an open day, this was more about seeing if I could make it to the course room, what the course room was like, and what the staff were like.

First- I very easily managed the stairs to and from the course room. Huge tick!

Second- The course room was fairly large with a lot of space to move around in, as well as plenty of room to work within at each seat, and great equipment.

Third- The staff are lovely! I spent a good amount of time talking to Andy Bossom, and he is just my speed. I know I would get on very well with him.

Overall, my taster day was very productive for me. Especially since I decided on the coach ride home- I will be going to UCA Farnham for their Games Art course using D2D.

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After spending a fair amount of time at Rochester without a support assistant, I was ready to take the plunge and request that it became official for me to not have an assistant. My request was granted rather quickly, which I was over the moon about.
I have had no symptoms of my conditions for just over a month now, so I am slowly managing to build up my confidence.
Due to having scheduled sessions on the upper floors where I previously could not go, my risk assessment has been updated, allowing me to walk around campus alone and on the stairs at Rochester. This is a huge step for me, and I couldn't be happier.
With this update, Farnham is looking more likely.
I will be heading up to the Upper 3rd and Upper 4th floors for the first time on Monday 29th, which is more stairs than I would need to do at Farnham, so I have my fingers crossed it will go well.

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Today was our last session with Chris.

He told us about the Student Art Pass- a card that would only cost £5 a year, that could get us into museums and exhibits for free and get us a 50% discount off of major events. I think I will probably sign up for this.

There were two guests today- Karl and Matilda.

Karl talked about his Photography Access course and how he tackled working during Covid. A lot of his work was about things like mental health, loss, LGBT and hidden disabilities. I really felt for him, especially since he showed us some work that he created to portray his struggles fighting for his child’s diagnosis of EDS (EDS is linked to POTS, which I have). I sadly had to tune out of his talk for a little bit however, since the rest of his work had a big trigger warning that affects me.

Matilda talked about her FE and HE courses and how they influenced her decisions. During her FE course, one of her tutors finally said what she had been needing to hear in order to go down the correct pathway- “You’re not a Fine Artist, you’re an Illustrator. Go and talk to this person.”. She encouraged us to practice more than one discipline as to not limit our options, and to ensure that we take breaks especially since our hobbies can also influence our work. She recommended trying lots of new things, like mixing different mediums within a work and other types of software that we may have not considered before. Her tips for making the most out of our FE years should help me, at the very least.

At the end, Chris explained that he was stepping down as Programme Director. Our new Programme Director is Rebecca Waterworth, and I’m looking forward to meeting her properly.

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This session was a check in with reminders to make sure everyone was on track. We were told to check for gaps in our work, to sign up for the Campus Taster Days (Which I have done) and to make sure that we don't forget about CTX.

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Today’s talk made us aware of the Art and Design Art Packs available from UCA. They put together a pack full of materials that can help students obtain good quality items for a discount. Sadly, there is no pack for Creative Media, so I may not buy this.

We had a guest, Robert, to talk about his Fine Art degree. He was an Access student, and moved on to a BA in Fine Art. He gave suggestions for ways to test out ideas cheaply and explained how these cheap techniques inspired some of his final pieces as well. He encouraged us to try new things suggested by our tutors, even if they are outside of our comfort zone. His work seemed simple and easy, but he was able to explain quite well how much thought goes into every piece.

The second guest, Ali, is on a Graphic Design degree. They did an Access course with rotations, which caused them to struggle with their pathway decisions to begin with, but in the end helped them to make their final decision. Their work is very intriguing and loud, as well as open to interpretation.

Chris wrapped up the talk by showing some of the new stuff on MyUCA that everyone could dip into, as well as reminding everyone about the Padlets and CTX.

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Today were we all told about the possibility of becoming Student Reps. It is their job to communicate a course group's feelings and opinions with the staff in order to make sure the courses are as good as possible for the students, as well as helping with events. I will not hesitate to talk to a student rep if I have a point I would like bringing up, but I do not think it would be wise for me to take up the position myself, given that my disability causes my attendance to drop unexpectedly.

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My thoughts on Moving Image & Photography and the word list.

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My thoughts on Visual Communication and the word list.

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Recently at Rochester, I have been without my Support Assistant due to her quitting suddenly. I have been allowed to navigate the campus (as long as I stay off of the stairs which I can understand, given the number of floors I would have to go down) by myself for the past couple of days. This has honestly been extremely liberating - I feel so free, but I still feel safe as I know who to find if I need help, and where I can find them. Maybe my recent independence will help convince Farnham that the stairs are an option? My fingers are firmly crossed.

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My thoughts on Fashion & Textiles and the word list.

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https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DollcentricStore?ref=shop_sugg

I have sold three pieces of work to America through traditional Etsy listings, and sold one commissioned piece privately to someone in the UK. I am very proud of how I handled dealing with clients, especially since one said client had been rude to me and another had misunderstood one of my messages which caused issues later. I am more confident in my problem solving skills after these experiences; they did not put me off of selling my work.

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You searched for: DollcentricStore! Discover the unique items that DollcentricStore creates. At Etsy, we pride ourselves on our global community of sellers. Each Etsy seller helps contribute to a global marketplace of creative goods. By supporting DollcentricStore, you're supporting a small business, and, in turn, Etsy!

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https://www.renemagritte.org/the-great-war.jsp

https://www.moma.org/artists/3692?=undefined&page=2&direction=fwd

https://uppbeat.io/track/ak/love-and-sorrow

https://freesound.org/people/Bertrof/sounds/131658/

https://freesound.org/people/MATRIXXX_/sounds/523763/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCitKV0ebZVbtU2nIPihDGMQ

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Stormcast-Eternals-Evocators-2018

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Stormcast-Eternals-Knights-Venator

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Stormsires-Cursebreakers-2019

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Age-Of-Sigmar-Dominion-EN-2021

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/a-brief-history-of-fushimi-inari-taisha-kyotos-most-important-shrine/

https://lillagreen.at/fushimi-inari-taisha-shrine-travel-guide/

https://medium.com/@nomadictravel/fushimi-inari-taisha-3ed3bb6f2479

https://www.mediastorehouse.com.au/worldinprint/hilly-landscape-val-dorcia-unesco-world-9091475.html

https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Wide-Hilly-Landscape-with-Flower-Meadow-/4241433071E015CE

http://www.artnet.com/artists/josef-dobrowsky/hilly-landscape-VsLMhs_eCQpwDlABK4_L7Q2)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(video_game)

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My thoughts on Fine Art and the word list.

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My thoughts on 3D Creative Practice and the word list.

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I have provisionally booked onto the Taster Day for the Games Arts course at Farnham on the 24th of November.

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I would like to try and book onto a taster day for Games Art at UCA Farnham. Maybe this is my chance to prove I can do those stairs? I need to talk to Bev, Denise, Chris and Karole about this.

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On the way home from the open day, I discussed possibilities with my mum. We had a lot of ideas, all of which are still very much in the works. While I will still research other Universities and options, at this point I would like to go to Farnham if I can. So far, in order to go there, I have decided that I will need:

-An updated risk assessment - At Rochester, I have been banned from the stairs. The stairs in question are steep and not very wide, with three to four flights necessary to get to the rooms I use. I find that me not being allowed on these stairs is quite reasonable, so I am not complaining. However, if I could prove to the Disability Team at Farnham that I can do the flight of stairs to and from the course room, which I know I can, multiple times if I need to, then maybe my risk assessment at Farnham could allow me on them.
If I were to be allowed on those stairs, a degree at UCA Farnham moves from being impossible to fairly likely.

-Travel Funding - If I get in touch with the right people and early enough in advance, it is likely that I will be able to access funding for travel. If that is the case, even if it only funds the best part of it, then I could use it to pay for a taxi to take me from home to Farnham in the mornings. My mum could then take me back home after the day is finished. This means that I can stay at home during term time and that I don't need to worry about finding a carer for my accommodation. It also means that I can still very easily access any medical appointments on tracks that I have been queuing on for a long time, instead of going back to square one. Like the Pain Clinic and Cardiology for example- I would completely lose my place on those lists or my treatment would stop if I were to move away to Uni.

-In lesson support - At Rochester, I have a support assistant that supervises me during the day, takes notes during lessons and is always ready to help should I have an issue. I will need to look into whether Farnham would require me to have one, and if so, how that will work and be funded.

-Single Night Stays - At Rochester I haven't been able to join anything run by the Student Union, like clubs or societies, but I would love to join one there. I am not yet sure, but the activities involved with those could perhaps be late after the day's sessions or even on a day without sessions. Maybe the course I want to join has a consecutive day in the week. To allow for these, a good strategy for dealing with them would be single night stays. These could be at a hotel, a bed and breakfast or maybe somewhere else. With the way my disabilities work, these single night stays would actually be feasible, so we need to do some research into how this may work if I go to Farnham.

I will update this list if anything new comes to mind or if anything changes.

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I was feeling incredibly disheartened after the blow of the lift, to the point where all I really wanted to do was go back home. However, I told myself that I should at least go to the Games talk that I was booked onto, to gather information about courses in general and figure out whether Games Art was definitely the right direction for me course wise. I'm very glad that I did.
I learned that yes, Games Art is definitely the right way for me to go, wherever it is that I decide to go in the end, based on the fact that it is the closest to what I am the most passionate about. I briefly considered the Concept Art course, but I ruled it out in favour of Games Art for the amount of options and directions I could go in with that Degree in comparison.
The person who did the talk was Andy Bossom, the Programme Director for Games courses at Farnham. I am very pleased to have met him - it is always nice to see someone with that much enthusiasm and passion for what they do, especially to the point where it radiates off of them like it did with him.
I spoke with him after the talk to ask for his opinion and suggestions on what I should do given my situation. During that discussion, simply put, he sold me UCA Farnham. The campus, the people, the facilities, the course, the opportunities, the connections, D2D, all of it. I would love it there and I know it.
Alas, with the problems the lift poses and the fact that I cannot move into their accommodation due to my disabilities causing me to need a constant carer, going to Farnham will be very difficult. This is something that I will have to investigate further.

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Today we had a guest, Grace, here to talk about her fashion degree. She explained how her FE course at Rochester helped her to figure out what area of Fashion she wanted to pursue at degree. During this time, she found an unexpected love for Visual Communication. She recommended that during FE, we should give ourselves broad themes to work from and to take every opportunity to learn new things whenever possible.
She told us about some software that she uses to digitally prototype clothing, which I think may be useful within a Games Arts course when designing costumes.

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After the finance talk, I returned to the quad. I found the disability team and met Karole, who was absolutely lovely and really helpful. I mentioned to him that I was interested in the Game Art course and told him about some of the issues I face, mainly that I would have to test out any lifts on site that I would need to frequent in order to get to and from the course room I would be in. Of course, the Game Art room had to be upstairs, so he took me to the building so that I could test the lift.  While waiting for him to try out the lift himself out of curiosity, I couldn't help but look at the stairs to the room. I noted that they were wide, not too steep and there weren't too many, with a stop in the middle for the first floor. On my good days, the ones where I don't need the wheelchair, I could very easily do a flight of stairs like that.
When Karole came back down, I tested out the lift myself. Oh dear. The problem with lifts for me, is that if they are too fast, shudder or bounce, they can very easily make me very dizzy. Even to the point where I can pass out. This particular lift was a big fat no- too fast, bounces on arrival at each floor, and shuddered as I got in. I had to wait for my head to calm down on the top floor before I got back in to go down again to prevent me from losing consciousness completely.
I was absolutely gutted. I was just starting to fall in love with the campus, and if anything is going to stop me from coming to UCA Farnham, it's that lift.

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The first talk that I went to was the Finances talk, as I had yet to learn about things like students loans and I hoped that they would be covered. Luckily for me, they were indeed explained at this talk, and I am in a much better position regarding them now. The main things I took away from the talk were:
-Student loan applications are through Student Finance England and typically start in February
-Based on my household income and my disabilities, a student loan for me would be rather high, in the £7000 - £9000 range depending on where I was living during term time
-I do not need a confirmed place at University in order to apply for a student loan, I just need to submit my top choice and update it if I get accepted or change my mind
-If I decide to take a gap year but I have already applied for a student loan, the application goes into a sort of limbo until I do get a place at Uni
-Loans are only repaid if my income goes above £27,295, and are written off after 30 years

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On Saturday, I went to UCA Farnham's Open Day. Due to the long drive there (About 1hr 20min) and traffic, I got there a little later than expected and had to rush straight in to get to my first talk. Due to the rush and my awkward angle from my wheelchair, I was unable to get any decent pictures of the campus like I had hoped. I managed to take a quick picture of the quad as I entered it though.

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Today’s talk was a briefing on the Progression Project. We were shown where we can find all the project materials, like the recordings of the sessions and proformas. There will be 7 talks on Wednesdays about different subject areas, and we are advised to attend all of them to help inform our decisions about degree going forward. We were also shown the project brief, which includes a checklist of everything that needs to be done for this project.

To show all of our progression evidence, we were asked to create a Padlet with specific headings. Chris asked us to share this Padlet with him, so that he may check on our progress.

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The Rochester Campus closure is affecting me greatly. My disabilities mean that moving away from home is a difficult - not impossible, but difficult - option for me. If this had not been happening, I know for certain that I would have stayed at UCA Rochester. Currently, I am looking at going to UCA Farnham if it is at all possible, as I am interested in Games courses and am very interested in utilising the D2D scheme. I am intending to go to UCA Farnham's Open Day if I can.