Help with my Extended Essay question ?

[emilee.lamond]

I'm doing my EE in Art and my teacher has said that my research question is not clear enough.

I'm really interested in how people view art and how they express their emotions through art. I'm looking into the language of art and artistic expression and I was thinking something along the lines of "To what extent have the restrictions of artistic expression changed the language of art?" I don't know if this is clear enough though. 

 

 

[ShootingStar16]

I'm not in IB art, but I think the question's too broad.. I suggest tailoring the question so that it focuses on one example of a restriction on artistic expression? If you do that, the question would be a lot more focused. Wish I could give more advice, but maybe narrow it down to one example of a restriction and then ask your supervisor for more feedback then? 

[emilee.lamond]

I'm not in IB art, but I think the question's too broad.. I suggest tailoring the question so that it focuses on one example of a restriction on artistic expression? If you do that, the question would be a lot more focused. Wish I could give more advice, but maybe narrow it down to one example of a restriction and then ask your supervisor for more feedback then? 

What if I looked at it during a certain time period? Or comparing two different time periods? 

[ShootingStar16]

hmm that could work

just see how much information you can find because if you find way too much info, it'd still be too broad. 

[emilee.lamond]

hmm that could work

just see how much information you can find because if you find way too much info, it'd still be too broad. 

would it be too late to change my topic to something like examining the mass media's influence on both the formal and iconographic features of American Pop Art because that was another one of my ideas that i was looking for but never really looked into. i dont know if its been done before

[ShootingStar16]

I don't think it's too late, but again, it depends. Ik with my school, we don't need to formulate a specific RQ yet. We just need a general idea of what we're researching on so if it doesn't work out, we can always change the topic. You could ask your supervisor about your other topic and see what she thinks or maybe do some research and see which one works best for you. 

And also, just a quick note: my supervisor told me to not be stuck on a topic for a long time. Like if you're stuck, it shows that you should change the topic. 

[beckypoo1]

You got this bae

[crimson.threads]

I'm doing my EE in Art and my teacher has said that my research question is not clear enough.

I'm really interested in how people view art and how they express their emotions through art. I'm looking into the language of art and artistic expression and I was thinking something along the lines of "To what extent have the restrictions of artistic expression changed the language of art?" I don't know if this is clear enough though. 

 

as previously stated, too broad. Try to narrow it down to a specific lot of art movements or even a specific artist, if you can. mostly because an art ee tends to be a rant on an art movement, and a broad question will just shackle you. 

 

I'd look into artists who had defined periods in their works- like picasso's blue period or his rose period, and how that connected to their personal life, depicted in their works, etc.

 

also it's the norm in my old school to construct an EE question starting with "to what extent..." to allow for a relatively specific question but to also avoid a question which can be answered with a yes or no

 

about your second ee question, it's quite broad, and most of us were discouraged from exploring mass media and art specifically, because mass media is usually easy to get very sucked into- it crosses over quite easily into film studies or english.

 

Arguably, that might be why you're finding it hard to structure your ee questions- both of them cross over partially into other subjects- the first into psychology, and the second into film/english. It might be easier to focus on a simpler aspect, such as 'shock value' (which is what I did for my ee), 'does the work have any monetary value' (a la piero mazoni's literal cans of faeces??) 'the ethics of a piece' (damien hirst killing an endangered species for his work?) 

 

I'm just spewing here, but feel free to contact me if you want :3 best of luck!! it's hard, but weirdly satisfying once you're finished (and please work on your ee over the summer it is the kindest thing you can do to yourself)

Edited April 27, 2015 by crimson.threads

[nonononononono]

I've got an A from EE in visual arts so i feel like i might be able to help a tad.

 

You should make sure that in your essay you find room to not only talk about the conceptual ideas of certain works (specified works, not in general) as well as visual qualities - tones, contrasts, saturations, tints, temperatures - all of that.

 

As others have suggested I would definitely think of a certain artists (movements are still to broad and way too fluid in my opinion). Make sure your essay includes a detailed descriptions/analysis of certain works.

 

Don't stress too much about the exact phrasing of the question - focus more on what it actually is going to be about. 

 

I would personally go in the direction of discussing to which extent did the early/late works (19xx - 19xx) of artist X were influenced/a product of its context(-time, socio-economic situation, other artist, past/current movements, ...) . Another words I would stay away from the word "limit", "constrain" etc. as these are all subjective terms.