Writing a visual arts EE without being a visual arts student?

[myjn]

Hi! So as my title says, I am planning on writing an EE in visual arts, but there is a problem - I have not taken visual arts in the IB. I have been in love with art for as long as I can remember, my entire room is filled with prints and paintings from various artists and I frequently make art in my spare time. So yeah, I'm a giant art nerd. However, I am not that familiar with all the art theory (colours, lines, lightning, all the stuff I heard my VA friends talk about), and I wonder if that would be a huge disadvantage? Also, does the new change for the extended essay somehow affect how easy/hard it will be for me? (Because our teacher explained that now, there is more emphasis on the whole writing process and your enthusiasm, rather than the actual subject-specific content of your EE)

I've only got to know that I could choose VA as a subject for my EE today, as we had our first "EE workshop" today, and I've been dying of excitement ever since. I feel like this is the perfect subject for me, as this is one of the things in life that I am truly enthusiastic about. I also already have some specific areas of study/preliminary research questions in mind, something I did not have for my other subject choices. 

So yeah, I have until Monday next week to make a final descision. Do you think I should go for it and maybe self study art theory on the internet, or is this whole idea stupid? My other EE choices were 1. English LAL and 2. Biology - but even though I love these subjects as well, I am in no way as excited about these two as I am excited about art :'(

[Richard Stifler]

3 hours ago, myjn said:

Hi! So as my title says, I am planning on writing an EE in visual arts, but there is a problem - I have not taken visual arts in the IB. I have been in love with art for as long as I can remember, my entire room is filled with prints and paintings from various artists and I frequently make art in my spare time. So yeah, I'm a giant art nerd. However, I am not that familiar with all the art theory (colours, lines, lightning, all the stuff I heard my VA friends talk about), and I wonder if that would be a huge disadvantage? Also, does the new change for the extended essay somehow affect how easy/hard it will be for me? (Because our teacher explained that now, there is more emphasis on the whole writing process and your enthusiasm, rather than the actual subject-specific content of your EE)

I've only got to know that I could choose VA as a subject for my EE today, as we had our first "EE workshop" today, and I've been dying of excitement ever since. I feel like this is the perfect subject for me, as this is one of the things in life that I am truly enthusiastic about. I also already have some specific areas of study/preliminary research questions in mind, something I did not have for my other subject choices. 

So yeah, I have until Monday next week to make a final descision. Do you think I should go for it and maybe self study art theory on the internet, or is this whole idea stupid? My other EE choices were 1. English LAL and 2. Biology - but even though I love these subjects as well, I am in no way as excited about these two as I am excited about art :'(

It happened the same thing with me, but with Film. I did not take it as my school doesn't offer it, and when I was confronted with the EE criteria and that research was the most important thing as it was driven by passion, I did not hesitate and went to talk to my IB coordinator and, even though I caused a row in the school because they dont usually let students do this, I did it and I think I will have a good grade, but more than that learned a lot of stuff that are enthusiastic and important for me, personally. Isn't that the whole purpose of an EE?

At the beginning, I was kinda scared 1- I did not take it 2- there is no film teacher at my school that could help me, which is also very important for an EE (guidance). What I did, and really worked for me, was to read massively about firstly film to get general knowledge and to be knowledgeable enough to choose a unique and interesting topic. Then, I deepened my research to the author and topic within it and bam enthusiastically developed my EE thesis. A lot of people will advise you not to do it, there are always safer choices obviously, like you said you could do Biology or Literature... though if the enthusiasm really compensates and abounds the extra extra extra effort you will have to make, I would say go for it, the criteria of the EE is more less the same for every subjects, if you are prepared for it, do it. First and foremost, read.

Hope it helped, mate 

[myjn]

2 hours ago, Richard Stifler said:

It happened the same thing with me, but with Film. I did not take it as my school doesn't offer it, and when I was confronted with the EE criteria and that research was the most important thing as it was driven by passion, I did not hesitate and went to talk to my IB coordinator and, even though I caused a row in the school because they dont usually let students do this, I did it and I think I will have a good grade, but more than that learned a lot of stuff that are enthusiastic and important for me, personally. Isn't that the whole purpose of an EE?

At the beginning, I was kinda scared 1- I did not take it 2- there is no film teacher at my school that could help me, which is also very important for an EE (guidance). What I did, and really worked for me, was to read massively about firstly film to get general knowledge and to be knowledgeable enough to choose a unique and interesting topic. Then, I deepened my research to the author and topic within it and bam enthusiastically developed my EE thesis. A lot of people will advise you not to do it, there are always safer choices obviously, like you said you could do Biology or Literature... though if the enthusiasm really compensates and abounds the extra extra extra effort you will have to make, I would say go for it, the criteria of the EE is more less the same for every subjects, if you are prepared for it, do it. First and foremost, read.

Hope it helped, mate 

Wow, thank you so much for replying! It made me feel much more reassured :') Thankfully, our school has a visual arts teacher who might be up for being an EE supervisor, so at least I will have someone who can help me out I guess. It's amazing what you did without a supervisor though, it makes me feel much more sure about going through with this. 

I will follow your advice and read read read,
thanks again for writing all of this!