Further Information on the Signposts London Trip
to the Tate Modern Friday 30th October 2009

Here are just a few pointers to make the trip as enjoyable and productive as possible:

* Please book tickets/make travel arrangements well before the day you travel.

* Remember to take notebooks, pens, pencils, sketchbooks etc. so you can make a record of your experience.

* Find a work (or works) whose presentation interests you. This can be work(s) by a single artist or several. If you are using the Tate Modern as your gallery it might be useful to choose a themed area and 1 room in that area. If you choose a temporary exhibition then plan to write about the whole exhibition.

* It's important to write down names, dates, quotes from gallery info with name of author, relevant information (such as biography, curators information from catalogues), etc. (with correct spelling) of work you are interested in.

* Monitor your initial experience and ask yourself how you are being led to engage with the work, for example: describe the layout/spatial presentation of the work, is the work in a darkened space (why; is this effective?), can you touch the work?, do you have to queue to see it?, do you experience it collectively or is it a singular experience?, does the work affect more than one of your senses?

Ask yourself how effective this is - is your experience in 'harmony' with the work?

* Remember that exhibitions don't happen 'naturally': they are curated, which means they are constructed by fellow human beings. Each work has been deliberately chosen and placed and therefore contextualised.

Ask yourself how effective this is - for example, do you agree with the curatorial decisions or do you think the show could have been more effectively organised?
Ask yourself who is commissioning the show and in what way this is significant. What is the relevance of the show i.e. how does it relate to current, cultural trends?

* It is better to gather too much information than too little but remember that this essay is only 1500 words so that you will need, when writing, to be focussed.