Reflection 16.02.16

Another epic week in the Collaborative Module, and it shows no signs in letting up for the following week either. Although I consider myself to have good organizational skills, I’m not convinced that I want them testing so vigorously.

At the beginning of this module, I wanted to throw myself into the idea of a collaborative project, forcing myself away from my usual creative process into something new. In many ways I feel that I have already achieved that with this project, however, I am pining for some creative outlet. The problem, for me, is that my idea of a creative outlet is so tightly reliant on a ‘traditional’ process, notably painting, that I struggle to see the creative merit in other outlets. I need to readdress my own ideas about creative process and product. In order to do that I have written a list to outline ‘new’ skills/things I have done so far throughout this project.

1.       Organised an exhibition space.

2.       Designed a 3D installation unit including scale drawings.

3.       Planned a ‘scientific’ (albeit with a creative slant) experiment.

4.       Relinquished control and decision making.

5.       Problem solved technical issues with sound.

6.       Allow the data collection process to inform the content.

7.       Not knowing and/or worrying about what the content will be (although this has been a challenge)

I need to remember that without these endeavours our project would still be in its infancy, so their value is equal in measure to the value of the final product, as one cannot be without the other.

Active Problem Solving

We have designated a number of days to iron out any potential bugs in our experiment design, a good idea in practice. However, I cannot help but feel that we make a massive error with the paper selection, not in terms of quality but in terms of labour. Rather naively perhaps, I hope that we have huge ques of people wanting to get involved with the experiment. The very spectacle of the installation should in the very least draw a crowd. The idea of not having enough paper to test everyone is troubling.

We need to spend the time testing out the technical elements of the experiment, namely the sound equipment, ambient mike, the cameras and the GO Pro’s. With insufficient documentation the experiment would be worthless. How do we factor in extra time to prepare more test sheets for the droves of people wanting to take part? I know I’m being optimistic thinking that we will have hordes of people wanting to get involved, but surely it would be worse to be unprepared and turn people away.

In reflection, perhaps, time wasted writing a blog post about it could have been better spent…