Critical and Contextual: Reviewing and deciding upon a essay topic

In our module guide for our Critical and Contextual it states that 50% of my grade will be based on a illustrated essay of 2000 words, whilst the other 50% percent of my grade is marked on a audio visual presentation lasting the duration of 8-10 minutes.

Although the essay is formed of a lot of words, more than I've written in around 3 years, it was was the presentation performed to my peers which worried me the most. I am and never have been an overly confident person, nor a brilliant talker. I've always struggled with a slight nervous stutter and find it difficult to pronounce certain words, however once I found about that the presentations were going to be shown to small groups of around 6 people, my mind was set more at ease.

Instead of over-worrying myself about the presentation, I focused myself on preparing for the essay. I started this by reviewing the essay questions:

As you can see, I highlighted two questions which interested myself.

Question 7: What were the aims of the avant-garde in the 1920's and how successfully were they achieved? Use examples to discuss. - I took an interest to this question as the 20's is one of my favourite eras, not just in terms of fashion. I love how the souls of many were lifted from the distraught from the war and rebellion was used as a form of pleasure. F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby is and will most probably always be one of my favourite books, illustrating this era so beautifully, and colourfully, its hard not to be envious of the times.

Question 8: 'Fashion is an expression of the times. Elegance is something else again.' Horst, 1984. Discuss this statement in light of your visit to the exhibition. - This question also appealed to me due to the fact that Horst is one of my favourite artists and photographers. I also felt like I had a higher advantage to this question compared to Question 7 as I had previously visited Horst's exhibition, Horst: Photographer of Style (mentioned in a previous blog post - click here to read) hosted at the V&A, London.

I reviewed each question carefully, which then led me to my final choice being, Question 8: 'Fashion is an expression of the times. Elegance is something else again.' Horst, 1984. Discuss this statement in light of your visit to the exhibition.