Highlights from the 2019 Subject Report
Wednesday 25 December 2019
Looking back and seeing the way forward
I have extracted some noteworthy comments (in italics) from the 30 page 2019 visual arts subject report and added some of my own observations, which I hope will help you in your teaching. if you would like to read the whole document you can find it on myIB or in the coordinator notes.
Grade boundaries unchanged
The overall grade boundaries, as well as the grade boundaries for each of the visual arts components, applied in May 2019 are unchanged and are therefore the same as those applied since May 2017.
Exhibition
Clarification of "theme"
The ‘theme’ refers to a concept, idea or thread that underpins the whole exhibition. It must be clarified once more that this is not a requirement for the visual arts exhibition, even if it is fully acceptable.
In some cases, having a theme helped candidates develop ideas in a more broad and conceptual manner, but only when there was an understanding that variation and diversity within a thematic approach is vital. For many candidates producing artwork within a theme might become a constraint to their creativity and should be avoided. However, for other candidates it can do the opposite: for example, if the theme/concept is a spring board for work that is exciting, diverse and meaningful then there is nothing wrong with having a theme.
The level of sophistication in the conceptual qualities varied enormously: there was some encouragingly thoughtful ‘issues’-based work, but other work relied on lengthy justifications and explanations in the exhibition text and/or curatorial rationale, without really providing evidence in the actual art pieces of the ways in which ideas were elaborated. These exhibitions were superficial and underdeveloped visually and often obvious, banal and predictable ideas and imagery were presented.
Exhibition media There is no requirement to exhibit works using a variety of media, the focus should be on exhibiting their stronger ( coherent) artworks, even if this is using a single medium or fewer media, rather than showcasing their explorations with a variety of media and no accomplished mastery.
Photography
If the candidate wishes to explore digital photography for their exhibition, they need to understand how to use a DSLR, and photo editing software, and different ways to print out their images. It is important they understand; exposure, depth of field, shutter speeds, ISO, lenses, composition, lighting, digital manipulation and alternative printing processes.
video-art work submitted was generally suitable, but remember that sound is not considered when assessing the exhibition. Note that videos will play on examiners screen in a horizontal landscape orientation.
Exhibition photos
To be avoided: “low resolution or pixelated images, photographs submitted with an incorrect orientation, panoramic photographs with distorted views of the exhibition, photographs showing people in the exhibition space and obscuring views of the artworks, photographs taken with the candidate standing in front of their display. Photographs of photographs”
The purpose of the rationale is to help the moderator to understand the context and intentions in the artworks presented but even a well-written rationale and supporting exhibition texts cannot make weak exhibitions successful. Some curatorial rationales were extremely ambitious, with bold claims about the creative and imaginative nature of the artwork and the impact it would have on the audience, but, unfortunately the poorly-made and predictable artwork presented did not live up to expectations. Hl students often neglected to discuss the relationship between their artworks and the viewer within the space made available. No photos in rationale please.
Teachers’ exhibition marks frequently are found too generous.
Teacher comments are intended to help the moderator understand the marks the teacher gave: Teachers sometimes write lengthy, subjective and glowing comments, praising the candidate’s effort and implying that the work is better than it really is. The teacher’s supporting comments are not to persuade the moderator that the work is excellent, but to explain why they have awarded the marks for each criterion. Teachers should be objective in their comments and reference the assessment criteria. However, just copying and pasting the descriptors that match the marks awarded is not useful.
A few key recommendations for teachers:
- Provide Workshop Sessions to introduce candidates to the experience of working with a variety of media/techniques.
- Work from observation can improve candidates understanding of their work and the work of others.
- Visits to galleries and Exhibitions can give candidates better understanding of curatorial practice (and writing) for their own exhibition.
The Comparative Study
Choice matters! It is important to select Artworks that will lead to meaningful comparisons. Poorly considered selections often lead to candidates struggling to make significant comments, resulting in simplistic bullet point lists, or scant Venn diagrams. Some candidates state a thematic link between the selected art works and this can help ensure thoughtful connections.
Art historical exploration Encourage candidates to consider and explore art from different periods and areas. Artworks from a variety of periods, styles, cultures and approaches were apparently ignored by many candidates and/or their teachers. ( the focus tends to be on contemporary artists and art history is often unexplored). Avoid choosing relatively unknown artists from the internet, where little or no information about the work is available.
Intro screen The guide asks for an introduction, and the best candidates realise that this is the moment to present the nature of their comparison and connections that they will be developing between the selected artworks. So yes to an introduction screen but do not waste a screen with a cover sheet at the front of the study.
Words and language There is a trend in some studies towards long prose passages. High word counts often resulted in repetitive text with little analysis. This was sometimes combined with small font affecting legibility (please note that 12pt is the minimum font size permitted). In contrast, the best candidates presented ideas through both visual and written means; using focused annotation and short, well considered, paragraphs.
The use of subject specific language is another aspect which seemed neglected in some of the May 19 comparative study submissions: the use of terminology is too often still very limited. Candidates should try to make use of the rich technical vocabulary specific to each of the different art forms.
Referencing and Citing Sources All sources must be cited at point of use; be sure to reference passages, quotes and sources as well as images. Remember that a list of sources page is not included and is uploaded as a separate document.
HL task in CS Clarification: The task is not to compare their art making with the selected artworks, it is to consider how the comparative study has influenced the candidate’s own development by identifying connections between one or more of the selected works.
Process Portfolio
The process portfolio must focus on the process. Examiners are less concerned with the final product that may or may not be included in the exhibition (where the product is assessed as a part of a body of works) and are primarily concerned with the processes undertaken in a candidate’s art-making practice. An examiner needs to be able to uncover from the visual evidence part of the process portfolio the intentions or the ideas that a candidate is interested in exploring through their art-making. They want to understand the reasoning behind the candidate’s choice of forms and of media and of techniques, as well as why certain imagery was chosen and arranged, what alternatives were considered.
A journey of development The process portfolio is about presenting the candidate’s path that they travelled over the course, and not concocting a post-production false narrative. If during the course candidates maintained a visual arts journal and documented, archived and stored all work, then the construction of the process portfolio is about selecting from that evidence. Often the pages that best addressed the assessment criteria were those pages that were genuinely documenting exploration and did not purposefully attempt to match one of the assessment criteria.
Depth vs. Breadth in art making forms: Students should meet the requirements of the Art Making Forms Table but do not necessarily need to do many than this. Often mid-range submissions tended to attempt to cover too many of the candidates’ artmaking undertakings shallowly rather than focusing on the works that met the minimum number of forms in greater depth.
Critical Investigation It is essential is that the artworks that are explored are relevant to the candidates’ art-making. This can be in terms of the medium, the style or the technique with which the medium is applied, the concepts or subject matter explored through the work. For criterion B, some candidates failed to provide any evidence of some critical investigation into the works of other artists that related in meaningful and significant ways to their own art-making practices. I would even go so far as to recommend students include critical investigation for each art making form explored.
N.B. Although there may be overlap, Candidates must not try to address criterion B in the portfolio by reusing whole screens from their comparative study component or work from their extended essay because they will not score high and this could also amount to duplication of assessment material which is a form of academic misconduct.
Recommendations for PP: a few key take aways
Favour visual evidence The assessment of the process portfolio relies on the presentation of visual evidence. No amount of written description or explanation can take the place of evidenced process. Mind maps, studies, sketches, thumbnails, material experiments, technical trials, developmental stages, discarded works, revised works, annotated images, annotated studies; these form the heart of an evidenced artistic process. In order to properly present them in the process portfolio, candidates need to consciously document the stages of their work as they are engaged in it. It is nearly impossible to produce a text-based descriptive narrative and do well in this component.
Create a flow The criteria are ordered according to their respective weighting rather than in an order that resembles a creative process. Discourage candidates from organising screens in the order of the assessment criteria. Rather, organise screens in a manner that gives the examiner the clearest, most coherent narrative of the development of the works included in the submission.
Use the Visual Journal The portfolios achieving at higher levels were at times direct scans from the journal with very little digital post production. Every page completed in their visual journal may be considered as a potential process portfolio screen. On the other hand, candidates may prefer to work digitally when it best suits their learning style or the art form that they are working in at the time.
Document lens-based, electronic and screen-based forms thoroughly: too often this is underdeveloped. For photography Include evidence of contact sheets/proof sheets, test sheets, outcomes of experiments involving changes in depth-of-field and/or shutter speed, darkroom experimentation, screenshots of screen-based work in development, photographs or diagrams of studio or improvised lighting set-ups.
Include Labels alongside images of students own work that includes technical details ( titles if any, materials or media used, dimensions) to avoid confusion about which form and medium a candidate has used.
Easily legible The IB does not prescribe a format for the process portfolio, or a word count, but screens should be easily readable when viewed on a standard laptop screen without needing to zoom in and out, with a horizontal orientation. Good screens are often dense without being overcrowded. Screens are correctly oriented, and text direction is mostly consistent. Where samples rely on reproductions from visual arts journals, the reproductions are sharp and legible. The stronger digitally produced samples often included a large quantity of evidence of the candidate’s work taken from their hand-written visual journal, sometimes using extracts that were pertinent to what the candidate was trying to communicate, instead of reproducing whole journal pages.
Sources A list of sources is required for the process portfolio, and citations are also required in the text, at point-of-use. If the list of sources uses a whole screen, this will not be included in the screen-count when assessing the process portfolio component.