Hi I'm Geraldine Johnson. I'm one of the Associate Professors in the History of Art department. I'm also a Tutor at Christchurch in History of Art. The thing to talk about... interviews which is often the thing that most worries applicants and I really want to try to demystify the process and not make you worried, it's simply another piece of evidence that we use in trying to decide who we think of our many many very strong applicants has the most potential to really make the most use of, get the most out of, the kind of way we teach and in a way it's trying to mimic the famous oxford tutorial, the small group teaching we do, although we realize of course we can't really do that and it's awkward and everyone's a little bit anxious and all that but we try to make it as pleasant an experience as much that will tell us how you will react, how you...what you will get out of the kind of tutorial teaching we do. There are two different kinds of interviews that you have so the order of them may vary but one of the interviews will focus very much on what you have sent to us so your UCAS form with your personal statement, the courses you've taken and are taking, and then the two pieces of written work that you'll have sent out to us: one of them being the marked school essay that you chose and the other being your 750 word response that we require to an image/ object/ building/ piece of design, whatever it is that you choose to pick and so the focus of that interview will be very much on discussing what you have sent to us so the best way to prepare for that interview really is just to reread your application, why did you say you wanted to do art history, what kind of experiences have led you to apply to the course at Oxford, why did you pick the particular essay that you chose and why did you pick the work of art or design or architecture for your 750 word response and it's very much about a conversation. We're trying to talk to you and as much as we can to mimic what might happen in a tutorial and so the point is for you to tell us things but also for you to listen and to listen to what we might suggest, questions we might ask to kind of push what you sent us a little bit further, so if you talk about a book you've read or an exhibition you went to, or whatever it might be, we might ask you questions about that. Not a test, but just to try to sort of have a conversation with you about that. The second interview we do is what we call the 'unknown, unseen objects' interview and it might be one that sounds a little bit scarier but it really isn't in fact it's, it's the one that I think is the most fun to do. This is where your interviewers- and there's always two in the room (virtually or otherwise) with you- your interviews you...show you photographs of objects that we don't expect you to have seen or to know and we in fact specifically pick objects that don't have any relation as far as we can tell to projects you've done, to courses you've taken, as best we can, and we show you these pictures precisely because we don't expect you to know the facts about them. We know what they are, we know whether they're a Ming dynasty piece of porcelain, an African sculpture in wood or a painting by Picasso from 1912. We know what the answer is, we're not looking for a specific name, date or anything like that. What we're looking for again is that potential for you to engage with an object about which you don't know anything and to use what you do know and your intuition and again your potential to engage sensitively and intelligently with visual and material culture to try to say something interesting about it, to try to think about it, to try to discuss it with us again in a way that is close to what we do in a tutorial. So we show you the object, we let you...in in a photograph, we let you look at it for a little bit and then we just ask you to start talking about it: what do you see, what questions do you ask about it. We then ask you questions. It becomes a discussion to try together...as a project together, to work together to understand something about that object, what kinds of questions it might it might raise, you know, what it might be made of, what size do you think it is, what do you think it might have been used for, who might it have been for and sometimes in that discussion we get actually really interesting answers. Some of them might be even close to what the object actually was made for and when and so forth and sometimes not. I mean I've had fantastic discussions where the student is, you know, "wrong" in the sense that they're off by a couple of hundred years on what the object is, sometimes they haven't even got the right continent on which it was made, but the discussion was fascinating and the student was willing to tell us... show us what what they could get from just looking closely and also listening. I think it's really important to remember that we're not quizzing on you, we don't expect you to have an answer. The answer isn't Picasso 1912 or, you know, Beijing 507 or 1919 or whatever it might be. The answer is not an answer but it's a process, it's about a discussion: were you able to show us that you were able to listen to the questions we asked, the follow-up questions, the discussion we had and really be able to to thrive and profit from that kind of teaching which is about a back and forth discussion and that really is what we're looking for in that second object-based interview which could come first, the order of them is is really pretty much at random. But the one where we show you one/ two/ three/ sometimes four, even, different pictures in that 20-minute interview and just ask you to talk about it and then with us have a productive discussion about what you see and what questions it raises in your mind, so it's not something to be feared, it's actually quite exciting and I think our students, our applicants do tend to actually say they, in the end, pretty much enjoyed that bit of the interview.

Welcome Caris. Thanks for coming in for interviews, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Alastair Wright, I'm a tutor at St John's College and I'll let my colleague introduce herself. Hello Caris, I'm Costanza Beltrami and I'm a lecturer in the Art History Department. Hi, nice to meet you. Good so, as you know, you'll have two interviews today and in the first we will be asking you questions about your submitted materials (so your marked essay, your personal statement and so forth) and Costanza is going to ask the first question. Yes guys, thank you for your application, we really...we were really interested in how you started your personal statement. You talk about a visit to the V&A and how visiting the museum made you very interested in curatorial practice and in how viewers perceptions of artworks is shaped by museums, so I was wondering if you could just expand on this either in with reference to the V&A or to any other exhibition that you have seen since. Yeah, sure. I'll start with the V&A, so it was the first time I'd been to kind of a big London gallery and it really amazed me at the amount of objects that were displayed within one place and it really struck me the role of museums and being able to share such a variety of cultures and items with a wider audience and then I thought well curatorial practice is the way that they transmit these meanings, whether it's how they write the labels or what objects they display next to each other and I just thought being able to create that almost like narrative of how objects are received by visitors it's really quite interesting, so that's how I got interested in it. Oh good, are there particular challenges at a museum like the V&A which, as you say, has such a wide range of different cultures, different time periods also, on display? Does that present challenges to a curator? How might one deal with that as a curator? Yeah I definitely think it does and trying to do it as like one curator would be a difficulty in itself because having so many different areas of time and culture to almost give everything the justice it deserves I feel like you'd need a large team of specialists and I know museums as well can come across from a very kind of Western perspective and a lot of the things might not necessarily be from the West and like managing the problems that that can face, that's definitely a curatorial challenge. Yeah good, good do you want to say more about that? London and what like what its audience might be and so forth? Yeah I mean London is the capital city, it's got a very kind of heavy tourist visitor thing. I think it's like another London museum that has similar problems is the British Museum where a lot of things aren't actually British in the museum and sometimes they have maybe questionable paths and how they've got to the museum and trying to address those and it's a place where there's a lot of attention focused on it as well because it's in the capital, so you've got to try and do the right thing through curatorial practice which could be challenging. Ah so so what could one do? What would the right thing be? That kind of question especially, as you say, very interesting, important question about how things have arrived in a place like the British Museum. I think, you know, maybe transparency of how things have got to places, that would be quite important in sharing it and particularly, say, if something wants to be restored to the country, or people want it to be restored to the country, it's come from having a very open dialogue about that so being honest in labeling about maybe an object's history would be quite important. I think that would be a way to do it. Good. Costanza do you have any follow-ups? Well could...when you were at the V&A or at the British Museum did you notice differences between how different objects, you know, from different cultures were displayed? Sometimes I've noticed things like lighting. Certain cultures are lit differently to others and I don't know if that sometimes reflects like a hierarchy of what seemed to be more important or it could just be for like preservation reasons but definitely between...like Greek things seem to be very well lit and airy and maybe that's because they're associated with being the best and like an ideal, whereas some things are left in darker rooms and sometimes that might make them feel a bit neglected. So interesting. Very good. Right, we're going to move on to a different set of questions now. These have to do with the 750 word response that you submitted on the portrait of Elinor Glyn by Arnold Mason in Montacute House. I want to ask...you talk really interestingly about the location: how the the work is located within the house and what sorts of decisions might have been made about how to position therefore Elinor Glyn herself within the history of the of the collection and in relation to the owner then owner of the house and as you say there are important gender questions around...around that kind of issue. I wanted to ask for for the portrait itself, does it matter that it's a male artist? Because that's one question and then, are we able to gauge the degree to which the artist controlled how he presented her or did she have a say in in how she was...how she was presented to the world through his image? Yeah so I mean I don't know to what extent she had control over the image because I, for the submission, I really just focused on how I felt when I saw it but as for him being a male artist it maybe makes a difference but I think the fact he still presented her as a very strong woman means she...he's not possibly like diminished her by how he's presented her and I think he still did her like justice in the portrait but it does throw up interesting questions because you could argue if it was a female artist, would it be a more feminist portrayal possibly, I don't know, but I felt that even though he was a male artist it still reflected her it didn't kind of diminish her to like a weak, feminine figure. She still comes across as strong and powerful in her own right. Ah good and does it...I mean thinking also then about further about the portrait, gender matters clearly as you're saying, what about class? Is class something that that we need to think about critically as we look at that kind of image? I don't know, so she's definitely in the upper classes of society at the time, you know, famous novelist and you can tell from what she wears that she is...she's educated and she's wealthy from the jewelry and the books, so I think maybe that would influence...well it's definitely a key part of her maybe identity within that image and also being in this stately home, you know, she's it...it's part of her story so it's definitely worth recognizing when looking at the picture. Good thank you, I think we have time for one last question in this first interview and I wanted to to ask you to think about two things that you talk about in the...in the application together. So one is gender around the the portrait of Elinor Glyn and the other is the exhibition that you saw of Anselm Kiefer's work at the Herbert. I know this is a...I'm putting together two very different things here but I suppose the question would be does gender matter for Kiefer? I don't know, I think for Kiefer the more important identity trait, I mean I'd call it that, in his work would be nationality. I think that's much more prominent in his work and because a lot of it revolves around problems that German people have faced kind of coming out of wartime periods but I think sometimes there is a bit of like femininity in how he dresses and like the heroic symbols series and the way he plays with that, so there is something to be said but I think nationality is definitely possibly more important in his work than gender. Ah good. What about the scale of the works? Oh some of them are absolutely massive and that's definitely very striking and I don't know, does that make it masculine? But there I remember that they had a thing called palette at the end of the room and it was just wall-sized canvas of a palette burning between two ropes and that was definitely the striking image I took away from the exhibition, so size was definitely a factor in his work and producing its effects. Ah good and as...as you and as you say that might...one might think about that in gender terms but one doesn't necessarily have to. Yeah it could be. Ah good, well thank you very much, that's been very interesting. If this were a real interview there'd be another 10 minutes or so of this but we're going to cut it short so that we can show people what a...what the second interview would look like and the second interview as Caris knows, and as applicants will know, is an image-based interview. So we're going to show you an image, I'm going to screen share it, and we'll ask you to take a moment or two to look at it and think about what strikes you and then to start talking to us about what it is that you see. Can you see the image? Yes, I can see the image. Good.

Ok, so the painting appears to be a sort of still life, so in the centre of the image there's a table with musical instruments, papers, a skull, a classical sculpture of what looks like a baby, dice, an artist's palette and a a stringed instrument of some description, as well as some flowers. And then see seated at the right of the table is a black male figure holding what looks like a small painting in his hand of a woman possibly and then blowing across the screen...it looks like a series of bubbles which is quite interesting. The background is very dark and all the light in the image seems to revolve around the contents of the table in front of him and I think it must be an oil painting possibly and judging. Why'd you say oil painting? Just because probably it's an association of just lots of paintings being in oil but for the time I wouldn't have thought acrylic would have been an option and I'm presuming it's well from the still life it makes me think of Dutch art from the 17th/ 18th century, I think, so I don't think it would be acrylic, so that's why I presume oil. Good, good. So Caris that was a great...well I'd say that was great but I wanted to ask you...before you said that the bubbles are very interesting so could you expand on this, why are they interesting? They just seem really out of place on the page, they're not something...I'd only think of bubbles as quite a, I mean, obviously they've existed for a long time but it's a maybe it's a modern thing and I don't understand how they would have appeared there or how they would have been made. In that sense they...they've got kind of a an interesting beauty to them in a way and they look very temporary and...because they'll pop...and I don't...I wonder if that's a connection with this school and maybe something about how life's temporary, so I wonder if they've got a symbolic meaning but they just surprised me because I've never seen bubbles in a still life painting before. Good, good. So so could you say more about like like what might this...you're starting to think about what this might mean or what kinds of meanings this, the image, might have. Could you say a bit more about that? Or why might someone want this image, who might this be made for, why would someone want to look at this kind of image? Yeah so I'm starting to think like, just by the items that are collected, they seem to maybe associate the arts so you've got music, like sculpture painting, but then again in the in the centre of the painting is this skull so I don't know, maybe it could be the artist because it's artistic objects like reflecting on death and mortality, possibly. It looks like there might also be like a sun timer just to the left of the skull? It's hard to tell when there's so many items on the table. As to why someone would want it. I don't know, I think it definitely is a painting that shows artistic skill so it could be, it'd probably be, expensive so it could show kind of affluence of being able to afford such a realistic and detailed work. Could be in style in the period, possibly, like the fashionable thing to own, or it could be because it's got the artistic object somebody might want it for those arts collection connections if they are a creative individual. Good, good and you mentioned early on when you were describing the image, you mentioned the figure. Yeah. But come back to that and why is he there? What is his role? What is his relationship to the...to what's going on here? I'm not sure because as again it seems to me unusual to have a human figure in a still life when normally it's just a series of objects that are immobile and he's clearly directing the viewer's attention to what's in his hand because he's looking at it, he's holding it up into the light, so he's definitely there to signal something but the reasoning for that...I'm...I'm not quite sure, I don't know the figure, actually, could be something related to the...which once you understood who the figure was, or might explain more of the painting's meaning. It could possibly be that the person he's holding the picture of is dead. I don't know and and the objects are connected to that in that sense but yeah. Good, yeah I think you're right that little painting that he's holding matters.

Even though it's a very small detail it seems quite crucial.

Good, good so Costanza do you have any other questions? Yes I was going to ask you Caris if you think we can look at this painting at this painting in terms of class as well. In terms of class? Possibly yeah I don't know what class it would fall into because it...I mean it looks like it's not a very working class...peasantry kind of image because you've got dice and a pack of cards so all of the activities displayed also suggest doing things for pleasure and like leisure time activities rather than survival or just working, so I think there's maybe a luxury in that the class depicted has got the time to do extravagant activities that aren't necessary, so it could be possibly read into in that sense maybe? Good excellent, well thank you so much this has been a really interesting conversation. It's been very nice meeting you.

So, good, Costanza what did you think about the interview? Yes I think this is a very good interview, I...that Caris was very good at thinking about the images and picking up on the prompts so we suggested to her. She seemed to be very open to thinking about art in different ways. What did you think? I was also very impressed. I liked particularly when she said...I asked the question about the degree to which the sitter in the portrait had control and she said I don't know but then talk very intelligently about things that she was able to offer opinions on. And I also liked when I asked a question about gender and Anselm Kiefer that she ran with that a bit but also said actually I think there are other things, nationalities specifically, that are more important, so there was a good degree of listening to what we were saying but also holding her own ground and thinking carefully about...about the questions. I also thought that when she was talking about this still life and she was thinking very carefully about you know what are those bubbles doing there and she made the link to the skull that was also...also very good. As we know, in the interviews we're not looking for specific answers, we just want to hear people thinking creatively and critically and looking carefully at the images but she did she did a really good job of that, so yeah I thought it was...I thought it was a very good interview. Yes and I think she also...when we were talking about museums at the beginning, she demonstrated how she's been very attentive and thinking very critically about the exhibitions that she has seen so far which I think is something very good for candidates to do. Yes. You know the application into the interview. Yes...that's exactly right. So we might point out, just in closing, to candidates or remind candidates that Caris is a second year here so she's had two years more education than most of the applicants who'll be watching this video and I say that just in case anyone is thinking that she was particularly brilliant and I think she was very good and they're feeling intimidated and they may not be able to say the things...the sorts of things that Caris had said. Just remember she is much more...she's further along in her education, she's had the benefit of a year here plus at the start of this year, so don't...yeah don't judge yourself against Caris but try to do some of the things...think about doing the things that Caris did: thinking carefully, thinking critically, listening to the questions and responding thoughtfully to the questions. Yes and if I may add also looking carefully, you know, at the image that we show you and try to think about the different features of it...taking some time before you answer, to order your thoughts and also before...As you prepare for the interview, think about the various things that you have written in your personal statement and try to be able to expand on them or to connect them in questions like the one that Alastair asked of Caris (to connect gender and Kiefer). Good, all right well I think that's all we have to say. Good luck to applicants who are watching this and looking forward to their interviews. We hope it all goes very well. Good luck. Bye.

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