In the past couple of days I have started developing my script and I’m now at the point where I feel I’ve nearly finished writing. This has been a bit of a difficult process for me so far – I have written the entire script on the notes app on my phone whilst pacing up and down my living room. This probably sounds strange but it just helps me concentrate if I can remain in motion – sitting down and writing is much more difficult for me.

I’ve decided to focus in on the question of if academic writing and reading is necessary to develop a successful practice as a sound artist. I am also then planning to link this to my experiences with undiagnosed ADHD, and I will hopefully be able to come to a conclusion where I can make a suggestion as to where arts education could possibly change in the future, although I’m not quite there yet.

I’ve looked a little into the history of arts education within universities and polytechnics, as I’ve previously heard it mentioned that art courses within the framework of higher education used to be more practical than today, where one could argue a course like this is around 40% practical work and 60% written/academic work (taking blogs like this one into account too). I’m hoping this may give a little bit of historical context to what I’m talking about, although I’m concerned that this section of the paper so far is a little under-researched. I will try and rectify this.

I’ve asked a few of my fellow students to send me voice recordings responding to the question “What is your opinion of academia within art studies and do you believe it’s necessary for developing a successful practice?”. I’ve received around 4 replies and there are a couple I think that would be good to slot in. I’ve also emailed the same question to Dr Roman Vasseur, my family friend who lectures at Kingston School of Art. I don’t have a reply yet but hopefully one will come in time!

I now need to think of how I want to conclude my paper. I’m not quite sure what to suggest at the moment so I will take a break and come back to it soon when my brain has had time to ponder…