Unfortunately, this term has been a very difficult time for me in my personal life, which has ultimately affected my university work. I have been struggling a lot with my mental health and as a result I haven’t been capable of keeping up to speed with the assignments. I have discussed this in depth with my tutors and they have told me that it’s okay to prioritise myself in this situation, because at the end of the day it is my wellbeing that is more important.
My plan now is to finish the assignments off, and whilst I will not be able to obtain the standard of work that I had hoped for, I still believe I can flesh out my ideas enough to deliver engaging and original work.
To simplify things, I have made the decision to focus on one unit at a time so that I am not stressing myself out by working on two projects at once. I will first complete the specialising and exhibiting unit part 1, in which I will be putting my composition together in stereo as opposed to 5.1, which I had initially planned for. I aim to expand the piece into a plan for a spatial sound installation for the second part of the unit (exhibiting in Gallery 46), but for now the most important thing is finishing work to hand in so like I said I am simplifying things.
After this I will focus on the second assignment, the sound studies and aural cultures unit, where I will continue to document my research and finish an audio paper. I feel that doing the assignments one by one will make my mind more clear, and I will be able to have more focus on what I’m working on given the situation I have been in during this first term. Once I can get these projects handed in, I can hit the reset button and continue with the rest of the year in a dedicated and focused manner.