Investigation and Sources of Inspiration

What a source is actually for

AO1 is the assessment objective people find hardest to pin down, because it is about a way of working rather than a list of facts. The usual advice is to collect plenty of sources. Collecting is not what earns it. Here is the difference. A page with somebody else's painting copied neatly onto it shows that you can copy. A page that says what you went to that painting for and then shows that one thing used somewhere else shows that you can investigate. A source is not something you copy. It is something you take ONE THING from. That one thing can be small and usually should be: a colour sitting next to another colour, a way of making a mark, how something is arranged on the page, the texture of a surface. Whatever it is, you have to be able to name it. So carry one question through this module: what am I taking from this source, and what am I going to do with it? How to analyse a particular artist's work in depth is the other module on this part of the course.

Five words examiners use

The first two are the pair that decides most of the marking on this objective. Learn them as a question about WHO MADE THE THING YOU ARE LOOKING AT.

Two reasons that actually count

Five things a student might write beside a source in a sketchbook. Tap the TWO that would earn credit.

• I chose this because I really like it and it is my favourite
• I took the way the pale grey sits against the orange, and used that pairing in my own study
• This artist is very famous and their work sells for a lot of money
• I copied the short broken strokes used for the water, and tried the same stroke on a different surface
• I found this on the internet and printed it out

Which one is primary

A student is working on a project about market stalls. In their sketchbook there is a photograph they took of a fruit stall on their way home, and a photograph of a market printed from a website. Which is the primary source, and does it matter?

• The one they took themselves. It matters a great deal, because a primary source shows the examiner that the student went and looked, and a portfolio built only from other people's images is held back for exactly that reason
• The printed one, because it is a better quality image
• Neither, because photographs cannot be primary sources at all
• The one they took, but it makes no real difference which you use

Two kinds, and what each is good for

Neither kind is the wrong one to use. They do different jobs, and a strong project has both, which is worth knowing before anybody tells you to stop using the internet.

Five sources, five different things taken

How an investigation actually runs

A student is investigating one source properly rather than filing it. Put the stages in order.

• Find or make the source, and put it in the sketchbook
• Name the ONE thing you are interested in, in words, beside it
• Try that one thing out in your own materials, without copying the source
• Compare what you got with what you were after, and say where it fell short
• Try it again differently, changing one thing about your method
• Carry what worked into a piece of your own work

What a moderator is looking for

Three habits separate a portfolio that scores on this objective from one that looks busy and does not. One source used four times beats four sources used once. A page of thumbnails from different artists shows that you can find things. Coming back to the same source with a different question each time shows that you can investigate one. Write what did not work. An annotation saying that the wash lifted the pencil and lost the detail, so the next attempt was done in reverse order, is worth more than a tidy page with nothing written on it. Failed attempts are evidence of thinking, not of weakness. ⭐ And get first-hand sources, because they are easier than people assume. You do not need a gallery, a trip, or expensive materials. A phone camera, a window, a kitchen table and anything you can pick up will produce primary sources all week. The mark is for having looked at something yourself, not for what it cost to get to.

Primary, secondary, or neither

For each one, decide what kind of source it is. Three lives.

The cook and the meal on holiday

Somebody eats a dish on holiday that they cannot stop thinking about. There are two things they might do when they get home, and only one of them teaches them anything. The first is to photograph the plate and try to reproduce it exactly. They get close, they are pleased with themselves, and they have learned nothing they can use on any other evening. The dish is not theirs and never will be. The second is to work out what the ONE thing was. It turns out to be the sharpness, a squeeze of something acid cutting through a rich sauce so it stops being heavy. That is small, and it is portable. They try it in a stew of their own and it is too sour. They try half as much and it is right. They have now got something they will use for the rest of their life, and nobody looking at their stew would guess where it came from. ⭐ Notice which of the two cooks could tell you what they did, and why. That is the whole difference, and it is exactly what a sketchbook page has to show.

What makes it investigation

A student has stuck a found image into their sketchbook. Select every action that would turn it from a collected picture into an investigation.

• Writing beside it exactly which one quality they are interested in
• Trying that quality out in their own materials on the facing page
• Recording what did not work in the first attempt and what they changed
• Copying the image as accurately as they can, larger
• Adding four more images by the same person to fill the page

Complete the sketchbook language

A source you observed or recorded yourself is a _____ source, and one that somebody else made and you found is a _____ source. Finding a source is not enough on its own: what turns it into an _____ is naming one quality, trying it out in your own materials and saying what happened. Knowing when and why something was made is its _____, and it often explains a choice that looks odd without it. The writing beside your work that says what you did and why is your _____, and a moderator reads it to see whether you can say what your own _____ were.

Build the annotation a moderator wants

Assemble the sentence that turns a stuck-in source into evidence of investigation.

One project, four decisions

A student is starting a project on the theme of surfaces. Each stage sets out where they are and hands you the decision.

• They have four days before the first review and no way of getting to a gallery or a museum. Decide what they should do about primary sources.
• They now have eleven photographs of different surfaces and a blank facing page. Decide what goes on that page first.
• They try the rusted texture in ink and it spreads into a wet blur that looks nothing like it. The review is tomorrow. Decide what to do with the failed attempt.
• A friend says their own sketchbook is stronger because it has work from six different artists in it, while this student has returned to one source four times. Decide what to say.

Plan one investigation

Choose any everyday object or surface you could photograph or draw where you are now. Explain how you would investigate it as a source, and what a moderator would be able to see in your sketchbook afterwards.

• Say what the source would be, and whether it is primary or secondary
• Name ONE quality you would take from it, as specifically as you can
• Say how you would try that quality out in your own materials
• Explain what you would write beside the attempt if it did not work
• Finish by explaining why returning to this one source would be worth more than finding five new ones