PROJECT SUMMARY BA2b CHLOE ALLEN
This term has been highly focused on Collaborative work, which I have found to be challenging, yet supportive of my creative development. I feel that I have managed to learn skills that I wouldn’t have thought of acquiring had I been working individually, which is a significant positive result of collaboration.
The Fine Art Illustration project enabled an interesting fusion of different, but similar creative practices. It was insightful working with a different course, because they seemed more connected and certain with their work, however they also ceased to contribute to collaborating after a few days which was a shame. Contrastingly, those of us on Illustration possessed a more hesitant nature in approaching the brief, because we were surveying the potential and how it could relate to working collaboratively. I was unsure how to begin with my own response, because the location could have been responded to in a multitude of ways. I chose to respond with traditional drawing and inks, because I felt that it would be the most effective way to transmit my perception of Restriction in relation to the location. It was nice to work with traditional media, however I think the conclusive piece of the group was most effective due to the range of approaches. As a group, we used our wall space in St George’s to communicate our ideas through layering and arrangement of our work. By going away to produce our own response and bringing it together to build a body of work, we were able to edit down and create a conclusive result. I think it was effective, because we introduced the opinions and voice of other people. Our location was a building site, open in full view for all to see and everyone that walked by it formed their own opinion of it, because it was impossible not to notice. Thus, the interactive element for the exhibition of the collaborative work was necessary and appropriate for our group. As it was a two week task, we had to be decisive, observant and focused to create work and come to a point of conclusion.
This is the shortest time period I’ve had to complete a brief. It was a challenge, however I think we worked well as a group and it was surprising how much we could achieve in the time we had. From this, I think my decision making skills have improved due to the faster pace of working. While the cross course collaboration didn’t necessarily fully work within our group, I can see how utilising skills from other courses can be beneficial for developing my own creative skill set and practice. It also revealed how much more efficient myself and other illustrators in my group have become at working as a team within a collaborative project since being on the course.
I found the Interchange days to be helpful, because it enabled an insight into various other interests. It also provided another introduction to students from different courses. I chose to attend a Human Anatomy lecture and a Creative Writing workshop, because I felt that both would help support my future work. They were also supportive of the topic of my Research Report Proposal.
For the Human Library unit, my group had the topic of Economics. This was one of the most difficult projects I’ve participated in since being at NUA. The subject was both unfamiliar and unappealing, however I think as a group, we succeeded in creating various ways to explore it in a creative and visual way. It also presented the opportunity to create a textile illustration using a Canon Embroiderer in the Textiles department. This was something new and inspiring, which I would have not thought of, had I not been within a group where a member had an interest in Fashion. For this project, I think that research was an incredibly important aspect. By a continual accumulation of knowledge on the subject through various means, it enabled us to generate a constant development of ideas as we delved further into the world of Economics. I appreciate the challenge, because I feel a lot more confident in my ability to work on future briefs or opportunities that are of an unfamiliar subject. This project was challenging not only in subject, but within the group work itself. The past few weeks have proved the importance of persistence, patience and compromise in order to keep the creative work developing and moving forward. I think that the final Forum Exhibition went very well and I was incredibly happy that we’d managed to come to an effective conclusion for the event. We successfully interacted with a variety of people through presenting current and important information in the form of play. I think that we achieved our aim to inform the public about the recent UK Budget in an accessible and engaging way.
The Research Report Proposal has been incredibly helpful in presenting the opportunity to focus and think about what I would like to pursue next year. I have chosen to examine storytelling and how to construct Horror narratives visually. I found the group tutorials and Pecha Kucha presentation helpful, because it encouraged me to talk about my ideas out loud, which helped my decision making. By talking through various lines of inquiry, I was able to work out what my key interests were and how I could investigate them within my research. I feel engaged and intrigued by my topic and think that it’s something I can continue to edit and focus and investigate over summer.
Overall, this term has introduced new challenges and presented the opportunity to learn new things, which I feel will prove to be beneficial in terms of my development as a creative practitioner.