Backing and advancing

'snapping to the clatter of the spin - out and in'
So eventually, it's done. I've handed in my proposal for my PhD disssertation/project and it took me nigh on a year. According to some, this is quite a short time, but I'd like to say, it was the phrasing of it,and the organizing of the strategy that took the time. I expect once it starts that things will change, and the reality is that I hope to start on the project before they decide whether they will give me the go ahead, but I'm not absolutely sure how it all starts. I'm aware of the fact that it is quite unusual to be applying to do a practical project for which I have no documentation that validates the fact that I can do it- but to be more specific, as well as writing a dissertation, I have proposed to do a rather complicated curating project. Well, as my buddy Anu says, things have been curated in many ways, and things that are not considered necessarily to be art.....well, we'll see.
My next ambition is to get much more familiar with the art world here in NZ, and get some support from there. I don't think I can do it just from my headspace.

Just to clear the decks I had to go back to the birthplace of my MA, and just close that book for the moment, and double check a few important things. Who'd travel so long and hard while trying to get going with an academic career. I did get my hands on the book that will make the difference, called "Art Practice as Research" by Graeme Sullivan- greatly recommend to anyone in the field.

What Graeme Sullivan has to say about curating the body:

In recent times, however, the fusion is more comprehensive, such that "the body" is often seen in both literal and metaphoric terms as an entity that is unable to be divided and separated into its parts without distorting basic patterns of operations.....This picks up on the idea that we exist within other connected structures. Furthermore theorizing the body in this way helps render notions such as essentialism and determinism as overly simplistic ideas that are inadequate in helping get a sense of the complex and connected world.

So the word of the day is "phenotype".