Process Portfolio: Review, Refinement and Communication of Ideas and Intentions
What the domain tests
This domain tests iterative review and refinement, and your ability to communicate ideas and intentions clearly. It is not enough to make changes; you must show why you reviewed a decision, what you refined and how the work now communicates more effectively.
Core rules and concepts
- State intentions precisely enough to be tested: subject, mood, audience, scale, site or interaction.
- Build review points into the process: peer feedback, self-critique, comparison with research, material tests.
- Refine one significant variable at a time: composition, colour temperature, scale, sequence, sound or lighting.
- Document before-and-after evidence and explain the reasoning.
- Communicate visually and in writing; the portfolio should be coherent without oral explanation.
Worked example
A student plans an installation about migration using a single open suitcase filled with soil. Mid-project review reveals that the suitcase is literal and relies on a cliché. The student refines the idea by suspending folded maps above the suitcase and adding a low, looping sound of a train announcement. They test two heights: knee level makes the viewer look down and feel implicated; eye level makes the maps dominate and weakens the suitcase. They choose knee level and document the reason. The final intention is now about threshold and uncertainty rather than travel objects. The refinement is visible, reasoned and communicated through annotated installation views and a short intention statement.
Traps that cost marks
- Changing everything at once with no rationale.
- Presenting review as I asked a friend and changed it.
- Leaving intentions vague: it is about emotion.
- Showing only the final work, so refinement cannot be assessed.
- Using text that contradicts the visual evidence.