Sunday 17 May 2015

End of Project Evaluation

The final outcome of my project has been the continued exploration of expression and function – whilst my proposal had heavily featured the machinery itself (asking ‘how far can we remove this before it loses all semblance of purpose) I have concluded that every presentation will place that line at a different point, and so will every individual viewer. Throughout my project I have created a large amount of images, as I documented every arrangement of the components. I continually changed and moved about the parts to create new layouts and perspectives, including (much later on in the project) the use of animation to endlessly loop the changing layouts.

 What differed from my original proposal is that very little of the changes I made originated from the language – I had initially thought that I might show the same thing to different people and ask for meaning with the parts under the guise of a different name, however the open plan of the work space made this rather impossible. It was also far more rewarding to simply present the images and examine what the resulting reactions were, as this way I could sustain longer conversations about the projected meaning of my actions as there was less pressure to conceal facts about the work.


 It is however difficult to remark upon the ‘final stages' of my project, as I never set out to create one final piece; from the start, the plan had been to exhibit whatever I felt appropriate after the weeks of development and exploration.

Throughout my project I have used my sketchbook to record both my progress and my initial responses to the images I have created. Although it is a very informal presentation of work, it provides a simple visual journey. I am glad that I did not use a new sketchbook for the entire project, as the previous projects in the book add a great deal of context to the themes and imagery I was working with that fed into the course of the final project. The previous work helps explain why I did not take certain routes of development (essentially as I had already explored certain areas and did not wish to wander back into familiar territory).

 It was helpful to have this to refer to, especially when writing my blog posts, which I used as a much more in-depth expression of the project. Reviewing the more important elements of my sketchbook allowed me to prioritise ideas and themes that I liked the most, and by writing more extensively about the concepts in the blog I could really establish the directions I wished to take in the following week of my project.

 However it was also important that I used my blog to record the discussions I was having with my peers, as their input played a big role in how I perceived my own work, if only for the factor of ‘what once seen can never be unseen’.

I feel that I effectively used my blog to evaluate and reflect on my progress, I also successfully dismantle 3 machines (1 every 2 weeks) and maintained frequent discussions with peers to provide my work with context. This resulted in frequent analysis of produced images, which helped me in my aim of gaining an understanding of how components can change perception of art/whole object.

In conclusion I am very pleased with the efforts I made to meet the objectives I set for myself at the beginning of this project.

This project was definitively shaped by my decision of which objects to take apart. Ultimately there was not a lot of actual decision making involved, as I had few objects to choose from in the first place – however I enjoyed the variety that the three things gave me; the sewing machine was a wonderful piece of machinery, both in the artefacts I found and in the process of dismantling it, along with the history that it had (as my mother’s old machine it was impossible to regard it with anything but warmth, remembering the clothes she had patched up and the costumes she had helped me make).

 The lawn mower had belonged to a family friend, and it had seen through two children being born and leaving home, a sudden divorce, and came into my hands when she was moving house. The large, bulky machine offered little in small artefacts, and this was very welcome, especially in comparison to the host offered by the DVD player.
 The DVD player had come from online, a local woman whose child went to the same primary school as me. But the thing about all these objects is that I didn’t divulge their stories to anybody I spoke to concerning my project – something that is so obvious and apparent to me never occurred to anybody – not one single person even asked. I had decided to not mention it to my peers in order to let any questions or comments occur without prompting, and only at the end of the project do I realise that they never did.

I feel that what may now be the most defining characteristic (aesthetically) of my project was at the time an idea that I fully resisted at first – by using any components of organic origin I thought that I would lose the focus (which was very much at the time upon the function and purpose of the machines) but instead, when the focus remained on the metal for too long I simply got restless. As a result, I brought in the organic components to explore how presenting them as equals I might infer meaning, and it is from this exploration that I created my favourite images.

Despite the fact that all of my development had technically constituted as primary research, it was drawn to my attention that I had to show a greater understanding of the wider context of my work – whilst I had visited galleries in the run up to the project, I had yet to include any of that in my book, and as such there was no evidence of it. It was research during this time that also was difficult for me to utilise, as my project in the early stages was very introspective, and I had trouble applying themes from other pieces to my own work. As a result, later in the project I spent time on further research, which led me to various pieces and ideas that really resonated with the themes I was exploring, and introduced further avenues of study. This more specifically refers to the use of organic components.

It was also through constant discussion of the images that I was producing (with both tutors, peers and evaluative groups) that I formed the main body of conclusions – I even used Google’s image search function to procure further comparisons of the images – and it was very often that an artist or concept that a friend mentioned would set me off researching something else that would then become relevant.

If anything, a lot of things that were suggested led me to do what was explicitly the opposite – when it was suggested I ‘take my screws on a walk’ to get fresh ideas, I brought outside components into the clinical white space of the screws. When a peer mused that I could potentially film myself deconstructing an object, or include the full object in any sort of context, it gave me the opportunity to justify to myself (and my peer) why exactly I didn’t want to do that – it did however lead me to think at greater length what applications video or animation could have with regards to the presentation of the components, and I am very pleased with the short animation I created as a result.

Next project I intend to use my time to travel more – it was a weekend away that led to the largest amount of progress in the later stages of my project, and the change of scenery that gave a fresh perspective to the work that I was looking at. I realised that when I sat still for too long, mulling over the same concepts was when my progress and passion slowed.

I also intend to experiment further with the materials I have – whilst I moved and consistently changed the objects, I never really changed what they were themselves. Perhaps this doesn’t negatively affect my project, as I had never set out to alter what they were, only how they were perceived, however now I have spent so much time considering them I feel that it would be the next step, and regardless of how necessary or relevant, a fun step to take.

Whilst there are things I would revise, I am unsure as to whether I would change the structure of my work – because it was a gradual and continuing process, in the last two weeks (where everybody else was really intensely working towards a ‘final’ model or piece, I have found that I am continuing at the same pace. I realise I should be quite happy that now I’m complete, but due to the nature of my work I could stop at any point or potentially continue on for weeks to come, so there is a definite lack of closure as the deadline approaches. I think that in the future I would be more satisfied with a final piece to work towards, however this may just be because of the influence of my peers.