Complaints on Support and Advice

At this point of the year, I am utterly annoyed for the fact that I haven't got enough time to properly discuss Professional Practice with the tutor. The only times I can have one-to-one chat are the Pastoral Tutorials which only happens three times within a year for 20 minutes. Otherwise, tutors are 'busy, busy, busy' and never replied to a single email. It is time to figure things out by myself as I cant really be arsed to pester around anymore.

china, china, china bloody excuses!

I felt that the problem does not come from the tutors but rather from the institution. 

Let's talk about the elephant in the room

The art university is neglecting the importance of continuous engagement through discussions and learning through sharing professional and personal experiences in self-directed learning. These values are essential to achieve holistic development for future artists and designers.

However, the institution keep on increasing the quota of student intake each year without thinking of improving the learning resources. By giving the busy tutors more jobs, meetings and admin stuffs, which is taking away their time and energy for fruitful one-to-one discussion with graduating students and follow up the discussions with further research findings. There is often occasions that tutors favour certain students than others. This is a understandable circumstance: the tutors have to channel their energy to deal with other arduous tasks set by their employer, and they want to avoid other stressful matters that can prevail from students who have 'unique needs'.

The result is totally precedented: a lot of pessimistic view arising from the people in my year about the course and concerns about their future. 

This is even more frustrating for myself, which has 'unique needs' for being an international student who wants to stay in the UK after graduating. I have decided that have no faith on the tutors after not getting enough time for discussion and the long overdue pastoral tutorial follow-ups. I have to find my own solution on top of already being pressured by the stakes for me to get a professional job by the end of July.

Networking and Career Opportunities in the UK & EU

FESTIVALS

Aesthetica Film Festival Going to attend a sound lecture, unfortunately it is not the topic that I am interested in which is sound in post-production.

London International Animation Festival (LIAF) Attend the KINOManual Workshop and had a good chat with Katy Wang while we were putting bleach on the film negatives. Katy is a London-based freelance animator. She has just graduated from Kingston's Illustration and Animation. Talked quite a bit about grad films, freelance work and gender issues in Animation. She's really nice and open and we've decided to catch up during Annecy. Also met Alex Castro who's currently doing his final year at RCA and does cool direct on film animation. Overall, a good experience talking to them two!

Annecy It happens after uni ends, so can't really talk much about it. I am looking forward to going and have a chat with people while sitting beside the lake. Last year's experience was great, the crowds are super friendly. Queueing up for hours doesn't really feel that long with some friendly conversations.

JOBS

Moth Animation Summer Internship When I saw the internship post on my Instagram feed, I got really excited to send an application. It's always been my dream to work at Moth. I really like their approach to storytelling and the design of their animations. They have always impress me with the ability to highlight the emotive aspect in their commissioned work.

screenshot of the summer intern ad

Royal Institution Artist in Residence Heard about this position from a tutor. I especially took interest in applying for this position after watching RI's Michael Faraday Animation. The animation is made using collage and collections of real life objects. The combination of the peculiar visual and play of word gives a creative solution which confronts the conception that that science is only for the smart and nerdy. The dry facts are made accessible to public through whole aesthetic. I applied for this position because I am interested to explore how the concept of science can be made fun and accessible to adults and children. 

LAU Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme

Leeds Arts University offers a mentoring programme for two international students who are keen to develop a credible business idea. The deadline for the application is on the 30th of May. As I have said on my Extended evaluation, I intend to do a collective pitch with Galuh Indri Wiyarti from Level 6 Illustration, so we will dedicate some time to create a collective branding, compile a portfolio and also send an email to express interest our interest to the LAU International team.


STUDIOS

Seed Animation Studio

Studio AKA
Bliink TV
Animade

PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES

PUNAnimation
Women in Animation
North Festivus

Visas and their respective Financial Obligations

Cost of living calculator

In the study task set we have to calculate our yearly expenses. I have found out that my yearly expenses in Leeds as a student is £11,384.

However, my concern is not in how much money I spent per year. It is amount of money that I have to earn written in the visa requirements to stay in the UK.


Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa

Just found out from an email that the university is giving an opportunity for international students to pitch their business ideas. They will endorse someone with genuine and credible business ideas to stay for a year (can be extended) in the UK with Tier 1 graduate entrepreneur visa. If I got the endorsement, life will be bliss as the financial obligation is much more less than what is required in the Tier 2 visa.

Application:

• 3 months before student visa ends, 8 weeks process.
• The visa fee is £493 with additional NHS surcharge of £200. £693 in total.

Eligibility:

• University degree
• Endorsement letter from Leeds Arts University
• Bank statement with £945 savings in the past 3 months prior to application

Tier 2 (General) Working visa
stay for 3 years

Application:

• 3 months before student visa ends, 8 weeks process.
• Online visa fee is £704 with NHS surcharge of £600. £1,304 in total.

Eligibility:

• For artists to apply for Tier 2, we have to earn £23,200 a year.
• Meanwhile average pay for new entrants are £18,600 per year.
• Bank statement with £945 savings in the 3 months prior to application or more than £945/mo. salary stated in the certificate of sponsorship.
• Certificate of sponsorship from fully approved ('A-rated') sponsor by the Home Office.

Animation CV

I have made a generalist 2D animation CV for the Royal Institution's animation in residence application. Out of personal preference, I'd rather have a two-page CV that is neat and clean rather than one that is condensed in a page. 

This is my updated CV after the discussion with a tutor. He commented that my CV is of a good standard, straight forward and the format is easy to read. I only have to do a tiny tweaks on the description to make it less specific. I have also added the tutors' email at the reference section.

Identifying Market through My Past Works

'How to Apply for Grants' is an article by The Creative Independent, a website by crowdfunding company Kickstarter. The website contains a plethora of resources, such as interviews, guides, articles, which introduces and delves deep into professional practice of an independent creator.

Through reading the article I have found out that to define the directions I will be considering in terms of finding directions in my artistic career, I need to determine my passion by looking at my interests in content and aesthetic and how it influences the animations I have done so far.

Below is the break down of content and aesthetic, and how they distill into my vision as a maker and my artist statement.

Running themes in my animations

• Socio-political and cultural context
• Based on personal experience
• Anthropomorphic characters
• Playful, funny with satire and dark twist
• Character narrative; simple ideas with unconventional telling

Aesthetic

• Illustration Animation
• Entertainment value: heavy subject matter told in simple and sarcastic visual
• Flat 2D, abstract composition
• collage, paper cutouts and other quick & low-budget medium
• work from simple shapes
• doodle, quite messy and textured
• happy accidents a.k.a don't think about the outcome
• video montage editing

Lists of past work, description and inspiration

Artist Statement

An animator and illustrator interested in depicting socio-cultural issues. I am passionate about experimenting new methods and ideas of creating animation. As a recent graduate in Animation, I am looking for opportunities to develop new skills and gain experience in low-budget 2D traditional animation techniques.

Identifying market

• independent filmmaking: apply for residencies and grants to make short films
• freelance: Form a collective with Galuh Indri Wiyarti from Illustration
• studio job

Where I Stand Now

Area of interest in animation

I consider myself as a generalist who keeps an open mind when it comes to making animated films. I feel strongly passionate about finding new ways of self-expression through the language of motion. This made myself more drawn towards - but not restricted to - the experimental approach of making animated films. My animating process is hands-on experimentation with tangible media aimed to effectively delivers believes which I want to convey. It is reflected in works that I have been producing which have clear personal tone of voice that is open for interpretation to the audience.

Sustainable Practice

What could potentially bridge my practice to real life?

Concerns: UK government making visa requirements increasingly difficult (Tier 2 visa: earn £23,200) and the dilemma of where to move next.

job application procedure for foreigners in the UK be like

PENDINGGGGGGGG!!!

Look up on visa documentation and where to move next.

Work freelance or in a studio -> Move and find a job or an agency representative in London

Alternatives -> Canada (NFB), Japan (international new media artist residency in Tokyo), Netherlands, France (Paris or Lyon), Denmark (Copenhagen).

Remote working -> I want to find a place in Indonesia outside Jakarta where the art scene is more down to earth rather than elitist, possibly Yogyakarta or Bandung.