Proper listening, proper heeding: A midwifery of thought

This paper seeks to demonstrate the way in which a group of second year BA Fine Art in Context students and I worked to demystify the process of acade mic essay writing and to set about the task of examining their own creative thinking and its relation to their art practice. It is also a tribute to t he dedication they brought to the project. Fifty students took part, but it is with regret that for reasons of space only nine examples could be selec ted as representative of their wide-ranging scope and expertise. These are presented in three broad categories that the work overall suggested; the us e of materials to symbolise and communicate ideas, the layering of combinat ions of images, thoughts and words; the juxtapositioning of words, objects and images to indicate the struggle to integrate and relate them, as well a s the innate intractability of the materials thoughts and words themselves.