We were set the brief to create a Public Service Announcement in groups of 4-5 Fine Art, 4-5 Games Art & Design and 1 VFX, using techniques and effects as would be achievable pre- 1950. The films had to be 1-5 minutes long and needed to be for general public viewing so they had to conform to pre-watershed rules without being overly obscure, and 'explanatory for the layperson'. They would then be screened in a presentation on Friday in two weeks time.
My grouping was with Laura, Oliver and Millie, who were also all around me in my studio, which got me much more immediately interested in this group project. Already knowing them really helped me engage from the outset, as I knew they understood where I was coming from creatively, just as I in turn understood their key motivations too. We had an immediate meeting straight away after and all discussed our interpretation of the brief and a few initial ideas.
I initially started by suggesting a potential tongue in cheek 'announcement' of the knocking down and rebuilding of Anglia Square, with a more satirical nod to the gentrifying aspects of the new renovation scheme. I also talked a little bit about the actions of the Business Improvement District (or BID) that I had heard of from Frazer at Moosey (outlined in greater depth in later supporting research), to give a more general background on some of the more negative vested business interests set on gentrifying Norwich for capital gain. Some expressed concerns about the focus on the 'announcement' nature of the broadcast, and although I thought with careful attention to our dialogue and respective voice this could be emphasised, I also agreed that it would require a lot of contextual and geographical research to be well composed and factually faithful, and could perhaps come undone with too close an attack on Norwich's developing body.
Oliver also had an idea that he had prepared ahead of receiving the brief, as an explanation of the way in which people can vary in personal aspects of their gender, and how this is expressed in different ways. He referenced an educational infographic which he said was used to teach people and explain the many ways in which gender manifests for different people. Although I liked his idea, I did think there could potentially be other more immediate and of the moment issues which we had been given a podium to potentially discuss. Gender identity, and lack of understanding are of course very important matters, and another small part of my uncertainty with this topic was the level to which we could faithfully represent the scope of gender diversity without succumbing to further stereotyping. As this was a key theme to Oliver's artistic practice and research interest, I felt that if we were to take this as the direction of our collaboration, he would need to take an absolutely central role in the production in order to ensure we were faithful to his understanding of the intricacies of the topic.
I did however remember back to my experience in the curation of the interim show. I had to take a central role in organising and overseeing large amounts of the group organisation in that, keeping everyone together and ensuring no aspect of the production was neglected, however in retrospect I feel like I was harder pressed to pick up new unique skills from this position, as I was spread thinly across all areas of the production instead of being able to easily focus in and learn fresh techniques. I thought that perhaps in this project if others wanted to take the lead roles I would get the opportunity to get more hands on with the induvidual practical experiences.
Others in the group talked about areas they would like to try working with in particular, and James from VFX discussed some of the restrictions of working to pre-1950s working techniques. He outlined that this limited us from using pretty much any modern forms of animation, apart from a
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