Thursday 15 January 2015

OUGD601: END MODULE EVALUATION

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

In this module I have acquired an extensive amount of skills in regards to my theoretical writing. An issue with 2nd year was my lack of triangulation and this year I have come to use it more in my writing and confidently.

The process of writing a dissertation has been something I have developed. In writing small essays in 1st and 2nd year I think this was a good build up in helping me write a large piece of contextual writing.

Aside from my writing skills I have gained a lot crafting skills, in regards to curating an exhibition, which was something I have never done before. It was something that was quite mathematical which isn't one of my strongest points, however I applied this really well to my practical in designing the space and executing my concept.


2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

The contextual writing heavily influenced the concept of my exhibition and was a major factor into defining the aesthetics within my designs. From the theorist Adorno I based the 3 sections within my exhibition around 3 themes within his analysis of popular music theory, which are standardisation, passivity and pseudo individualisation. 

Curating an exhibition was a complete challenge for myself as a designer, but this is something that I want to do in the future and in my personal practice. In design production I extended my skills from created hand manipulated artwork, curating a space, 3D signage, promotional products and product design features such as handing rails and music boxes. In doing this exhibition it has informed me of how much work and consideration has to put in place to produce one and is an invaluable skill that I can extend to other projects.


3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think my writing skills are quite strong and have been developing each year as I have progressed on the course. However this extended writing piece I have become more aware of how to use a multitude of theorists, links and sources and write in a more refined and clear way, which has proven difficult at times. 

For my exhibition I felt the concept was a strong point as it linked to what my critical writing was about clearly, but turning those themes into interesting artwork was something I felt really worked, I think when considering concepts I need to identify clear topics or themes to link things to, make my work more clear to an unknowing audience.
I took on a different approach to the design of my artwork using more hand rendered skills which is something I haven't utilised in a while and were thought provoking and interesting according to some feedback I had from the audience that attended the exhibition which was encouraging.
From previous years synergy was something I struggled with but I feel that this is something I have hit the nail on the head with.


4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?


The weaknesses I have come to terms with in my work is spelling, in printing both my dissertation and artwork I had to reprint work due to these errors. I need to have more attention to detail in these situation and so that I don’t have waste time and get someone to proof read it.


5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?


  • Get more primary research to apply into my dissertation.
  • Promote the event more, so more people would come in regards to agencies.
  • Spend more time researching into my case studies to make my points stronger.
  • Attend me pratical crits.
  • Document my work more regularly.






CONTEXT PRATICAL: RATIONALE*


Re—Mix is an exhibition looking into the past and present of popular music. Making comparisons to see if it has evolved over time or if it has just been copied from those who have come before. With interactive art work and music, the exhibition shows the development of music throughout the years.

The exhibition was influenced by theorist Adorno and his theory of standardisation, pseudo - individualisation and passivity. The exhibition was designed around an exploration of themes through lyrics, sound and vision within music. A series of questions on cards were displayed see to if people could recognise the standardisation of music.

The lyrics section within the exhibition explores the similarity between artists song lyrics through the use of collages of the artist’s and typography. The artwork was divided showing the original artist and the new one to show a direct comparison.

The vision section within the exhibition explores the similarity between artists style and mannerisms through combined collages. The exhibition tested audience to see if they could tell them apart.

The sound section is an interactive artwork section with collages of artists that have sample music from one another artists. With live music playing within boxes to define the comparisons further.

Other features within the exhibition included a multitude of hanging and design features created to curate the design of the space. These features allowed to give audiences other things to interact with and define the brand.

CONTEXT PRACTICAL: PRACTICAL EVALUATION *

Saturday 10 January 2015

CONTEXT PRACTICAL: EXHIBITION FEEDBACK

Concept

Re—Mix was a participation exhibition testing to see if the audience were susceptible to Adorno's theory. I displayed colour co-ordinated comment cards alongside the artwork section for sound, lyrics and vision. With a collection of questions to test these theories.








Questions

The questions took on a simple approach seeing if consumers could identify who was within the artwork and then their thoughts and feeling which would then determine the results of Adorno's theory.

Results


A light box, ballot box was created to hold the replies for the exhibition, followed by some 3D spray painted signage to reinforce the brand.






The ballot box had a detatchable top to collect all the responses, and it amounted to 65 participants who engaged all together, which was really good!


Statistics

— Sound

A comparison between the artist’s songs and the sampling of original material
to create new music, through interactive artwork in the form of live music and
visual collages.

98 % of participants were more inclined to recognise the current artist over
the original artist.

20 % of participants attitudes had changed negatively towards the artist 
after viewing the artwork.

80 % had seen similarities between the artist’s that they hadn’t recognised
before.



— Vision

A comparison between the style and appearance of the artist to see if the
audiences were aware of the standardisation of certain artist’s and if this 
affected them.

70 % of participants were more inclined to recognise 
the current artist over the original artist.

55 % of participants attitudes had changed negatively towards
the artist after viewing the artwork.

90 % had seen similarities between the artist’s that 
they hadn’t recognised before.



— Lyrics

A comparison between artist’s lyrics showing comparisons between what they 
have written previously and how it has been reworded for present day use.

100 % of participants noticed the similarities in the lyrics that had not noticed
before.

75 % of participants however noticed this in other songs before.

95 % of participants views had changed on the artist after this 

experiment.



Manual

From the feedback I decided to create a manual on the primary feedback and statistics on the questions answered on the exhibition to show how the theory of Adorno linked to modern day society and if this effected people.


— Manual Design

I broke down the design into the 3 sections using the colour coded feedback forms as dividers. For the additional pieces I added and introduction, conclusion, and sections with examples of the artwork so people who didn't attend the exhibition could get an insight about the themes and the response.



 













— Manual Production

I printed out my manual, cutting the the design out to A5 and arranging the sheets in the right place.







The different stocks and colours add depth and visual variation to the publication andhighlights the differnt sections within the publication.




Due to the comment cards being hole punched, I felts a single ring bind would be most appropriate for the visual aesthetic of the book, it would also act as a visual flip chart of the feedback.


Alterations

In production, some of the comment cards were not aligned with the hole punches of the other pages which was something I tired to alter through scanning and reprinting. 





However due to the stock being red, the comments were to dark to see. Due to time scale I had to make the conscious decision to leave the book as it was. Although it is visually not perfect the manual still provides all the information needed and is process I have learnt from when using a hole punch style publication.


Final





    

    

     

Friday 9 January 2015

CONTEXT PRACTICAL: EXHIBITION VIDEO FOOTAGE

For the exhibition I collaborated with Elliot Tibbs from video and animation to  document the event on the opening night. Cross course collaboration with a course I have never worked with before was really beneficial and I would like to collaborate with this course further for future briefs.