Practice, Experimentation, and Revision
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| practice/ˈpræktɪs/ | Repeated work on a skill or task to improve performance or understanding. |
| experimentation/ekˌsperɪmənˈteɪʃn/ | Trying and testing alternatives to investigate possibilities, effects or ideas. |
| revision/rɪˈvɪʒn/ | Reviewing and changing work to improve its accuracy, clarity or effectiveness. |
| revision pair/rɪˈvɪʒn peə/ | Two related images or states of a work shown together to make a change or development visible. |
Three engines of making
- The CED names three engines: practice 练习 (repeat), experimentation 实验 (test), revision 修改 (modify) (CED 2.A).
- Practice repeats a skill until reliable — the tenth ellipse, the fiftieth hand.
- Experimentation tests without needing success: new tool, scale, surface, speed.
Returning to a finished work and changing it on purpose is ____.
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Revision = deliberate change to existing work.
You should throw away every failed experiment.
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Keep and annotate them — they are strong evidence.
Revision reimagines
- Revision returns to a work and changes it on purpose: crop, rework, redraw, or answer with a new version.
- Show all three visibly — scorers must see them, not take your word.
- A revision pair 修改前后对比 (first / revised, with one sentence) is classic evidence.
Michelangelo's figure study: practice and revision build drawing skill through repeated investigation
Practice, experimentation, or revision?
Sort each studio activity into its engine.
Select all examples of experimentation.
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Repeating a mastered skill is practice.
Keep the failures
- Keep the failures — an annotated failed experiment is stronger evidence than an unexplained success.
- Each failed test tells the scorer you took a real risk.
- Practice, experimentation, revision are processes, not results — document them.
A first-state and revised-state pair, with a note, is a revision ____.
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A revision pair is classic evidence.
Match the engine to what it builds.
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Three engines, three gains.
Throwing away every "bad" drawing erases your best evidence of experimentation and revision. Keep and annotate the failures — a portfolio of only successes looks lucky, not investigated.
A revision pair: version 1, a flat frontal portrait; version 2, the same face relit from below with the background darkened. One sentence — "relit to make the calm face feel uneasy" — and the pair proves revision and intent.
Practice (repeat), experimentation (test), and revision (change on purpose) are the engines of making — show all three, keep the failures, and use revision pairs as direct evidence.
Write from 8 unchanged ellipses
- A student draws the same ellipse 8 times with no change.
A student draws the same ellipse 8 times and changes nothing. Which of practice, experimentation, and revision is shown?
Practice builds the skill. Experiment and revision change the work.
What do the 8 unchanged ellipses show?
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Nothing new was tried and nothing was changed.