I am happy with the overall outcome of my project. I think one of the aspects I most enjoyed about this work was that I treated it as an active investigation into the effect of advertising language on the public reception of street work. I was also pleased to see it produced results which genuinely interested me and satisfied my questioning mind. Having two concluding experiments running simultaneously (bees and SOS prints) also allowed comparison of results and a proper evaluation of the successed and failures of each. I also took great joy from learning the printing process, and truly feel in this unit I have uncovered my specific media of interest.
As well as this, I feel my grasp of my ethical, historical and social surroundings has vastly improved through the books I read for my 2000 word text. I feel that my work has become much more self aware and is now armed with a truly worthy cause that I genuinely feel passionate about. For the first time I really feel the driving force behind my art, and have even been able to get a sense for some of the difference that can be made; even on such a small scale project as this, with people saying on social media I had increased their awareness and made them consider things differently. I loved the surrounding reading I did for this project, and am dedicated to increasing my comprehension further next year.
LO5: I believe I have demonstrated an experimental and creative approach to each of the workshops by taking preparatory measures before each session to ensure I am fully engaged in the task. I have also explored many new techniques and returned in my own time to develop and hone these new skills, many of which (e.g wasting plaster cast) went well above and beyond the requirements of the session. In addition to this I have also tried to remain openminded in my approach and not limit myself to a specific spectrum of ideas.
The group exhibition was trickier for me, as my practice did not specifically fit into any of the catagories given, and also my work is seldom fully realised in a sterile, white walled gallery setting. Instead, the street is where my work is best suited for presentation, however I still put my all in, and attempted to galvanize the group, suggest lots of ideas for presentation formats (even though none of the work was relative to my area of artistic interest) and took part in coming up with viable suggestions and ideas to boost us through the group presentation.
LO6: I believe in this unit I have really strengthened my grasp of the historical, cultural and ethical concepts which surround my work. By choosing to focus my 2000 word essay on the same subject I am basing work around, I was able to double the thoroughness of my research in both areas simultaneously. I have done a lot of reading on Capitalism, Commodification and late stage Consumerism which has increased my self-awareness in the direction my work is taking, and most importantly renewed my faith in art's ability to make a big difference.
As well as this I have also began to have further essay ideas around the Craft vs. Concept arguement, based on early reading, and have rudimentary plans to use this as my essay subject for the 3000 word essay next year.
LO7: I have demonstrated 'thinking through making' very explicity in this project, most obviously through the slow development of my surreal 'Calcify' image. First I sketched from source photography before turning my ideas into an acrylic painting. From here, inspired by the words of Carl Rowe, I then developed my idea further into a full colour CMYK screen printed poster, and then finally I installed the posters and prints around the city. I also used my research into Semiotics and Connotation to inform my creative descision making throughout this process. There is also a large amount of inherent 'creative risk taking' in the installation of my pieces, not only to myself (as the activity itself is illegal, and the best locations are hard to reach) but also to the artworks, as it is always a real possibility that bad weather or the council will destroy all of my pieces before I could collate any kind of result or response, however creatively the risk is well worth it, as without this I wouldn't have been able to conduct my investigation. In the world of street art you cannot be precious over the work you put out there, and the public will very much have an active and unfiltered opinion on the work.
I also had to do lots of problem solving for the group exhibition, as I struggled to secure my mounted photographs to the wall, and had to rethink my entire method in a very small amount of time when my first attempt failed.
LO8: I have tried to be as thorough as possible in my reflective journal, honestly documenting my reactions and thoughts wherever possible. I have also tried to set clear goals and developments within my reflections, as well as clearly listing things I felt satisfied or disappointed with. Because of the colloquial format of my journal I hope this makes interpreting easier, and improves the quality of my reflections as detailed responses to my ongoing practice. Unlike the last unit, this time I opted to catagorize journal entries day by day, instead of creating a single post for each week. In doing this I was able to make each entry more comprehensive and expeditious; allowing me to write a journal entry for every day that passed instead of catching up on a weeks worth of work at a time. I find that this has really helped with the effectiveness of my journal, the ease with which I was able to organise myself, and the ease with which single topics or workshop days can be read about.
To communicate the development of my creative ideas, I always create compositional sketches or brief drawings before starting any painting. This helps me lay initial ideas down on paper and make changes before commiting to the final product. As well as this, it also demonstrates the development of each idea and allows you to witness my creative process.
LO9: In my reflective journal I have included commentary on lectures, Dialogues Symposium and the 'documenting your work' workshops, all of which I found very insightful and interesting. It is this kind of invaluable industry knowledge which is tacit (see the art of the maker by peter dormer), and passed down only from professional to professional. As well as this I have repeatedly referenced how new skills gained can be applied to both my creative practice and future creative prospects in specific ways. By revisiting the print workshops so many times, I improved my printing abilities with the specific intention of being able to create runs of near identicle prints. I recognised the importance of this in terms of my employability (professional printmakers (and artists) must create large numbers of absolutely perfect copies), and potential future career opportunities.
On my own initiative I also conducted personal research ahead of each new SKILLS unit, always with a link to my artistic practice specifically, such as the 'street sculpture' and 'relief sculpture' research pages completed ahead of the SCULPTURE workshops.
LO10: I believe I have exhibited independent planning many times throughout this unit. It is most obvious in the way I have prepared ahead of each of the SKILLS workshops, partly with targeted research in relation to both the wider media and more specifically my practice. As well as this however I also took the time to create my own images fresh for each new workshop, instead of using a pre-prepared photograph or reusing an artwork I had previously created. I really feel like this extra planning allowed me to get the most out of both the workshops and each new experimental process.
As well as this I also had to carefully manage the time around the installation of my work, not only because the weather can entirely cancel a planned pasting session, but also because I needed to ensure my final posters were ready, cut and pasted long before the deadline. I needed to do this in order to collect enough of a public response over social media, and collate this before submission, enabling me to see the results of my creative experiments. I also wanted to get the pieces pasted up when I did to coincide with Earth Day on the 22nd of April to increase the spread and social media response in conjunction with the worldwide event.
No comments:
Post a Comment