Evaluation
I came into my second year thinking of continuing my sensory installations. However we were presented with a ‘subject/object’ grid. I feel that it really helped me come out of my comfort zone and explore different methods and expand my way of thinking. It helped me to discover my way of working and what my makes my artwork function. Interaction.
I struggled coming up with decent ideas at first, but I created work through my own interests and through nostalgic objects such as a mix up book and a stand in picture board. These are medias that I would never have thought of looking into until I had to think outside the box.
I felt that my mix up book worked well out of the two pieces I made. Though I liked the outcome of the stand in picture and how everyone’s interaction created a new piece within it. It was difficult to get the wood I need and the size I needed it, nor could I do a lot of the woodwork, I don’t think I would be able to carry it on or keep it exciting so I decided to look into something else.
I was going to create the subject: illusion, sound in a small space. My idea was to put a very small mp3 in a tiny box that would play scratching but very quietly. The idea wasn’t strong enough and I had to look for something else. I really struggled trying to think of something. I went back to hybrids like I did with my stand in cut out. I came up with an idea of making an artist book that worked with the hybrid idea. I wasn’t sure what I would do until I just had an idea out of the blue. I wanted to create a mix up book. Where the head and torso are separated and you can change them such as a rabbit head on a man’s body or the rabbit head on a woman’s body. It worked really well and after several ideas of bodies and heads I feel the outcome was really good. I was going to create more and possibly look into making a joke out of it such as magazine models with animal bodies and creating a fashion magazine or a catalogue. I’m glad I didn’t in the end. I don’t think my work would have been as strong as it is now.
My work at the beginning started with a rabbit. Then a mask and then interest in creating work around anthropomorphic. That’s when I started looking at the Pooka. The Pooka has actually always been present in my work subconsciously, from my first installation last year to my Art in Context work and now starting to manifest in my Art and Design Practices. I could play with both atmospheric feels such as calming, magical and then dark and supernatural. I worked with the idea well because of my childhood fascinations that have aged and expanding now I’m at uni.
I decided to merge my two modules, Digital Practices and Art and Design, together and placed my Pooka creature within my Night Walk. I started looking at digital storytelling but still linking interaction as all through my work it’s been the idea of public interaction that becomes the artwork itself.
I feel that because I delved into alternative media such as wood work, book making. It helped strengthen the subject I’m very interested in, the function of public interaction within my work and it pushed me back into story telling using digital narrative. I feel I’ve learnt an awful lot not just within my artwork but within my own interests and how to mature them and what to look further into in the future.
The writing tasks were incredibly tricky, it felt very daunting and I really didn’t enjoy it at first. I struggled to structure my writing like my reference texts. However, it helped me focus of specific texts and specific images. I started to really consider what links with my work and within my progression through my work.
I gained knowledge in new findings through articles and artwork, helping me explore poets that I’d never heard of before and artists who practise all different types of media and it also helped me expand my interests within game, game mechanics, the psychology of games and also films.
I feel that though I found the written tasks difficult to write and form, I learnt a lot from revising old films and interests and even films that don’t hold the same narrative as my work but the methods. Sliding doors for example.
If I were to do this again, I feel that I would pay more attention to the written tasks as they help with your creative writing and it emphases your work and its progression.