Evaluation Of My Own Work & Goodbye!

I am really happy at the way my installation piece has come together, I think that it is a acceptable response to the brief that was given as it connects the environment with the area that we had our exhibition in. I used a box to show my work as I found this went very well by putting the outside inside, and as the weather is such a wild and important area in sailing, by looking at the weather in a different perspective it makes the weather look calm and collective. 

To improve my work, if I  was able to continue on with this project, would definitely to have a bigger box to place my photographs in as I was limited on how many photographs I could have. I would also shoot more photographs from the different time scales from morning to night , so that I could give myself more of a varied choice. I do think that installing a photographic feel to the project did the work justice as I wanted to combine art and a important matter to the yacht club members together. During the exhibition , I did realise that the table that I had placed my work on was a bit to low, and many people had to crouch to look through the peep hole, so maybe I would make sure that the box was at a level where everybody could see the work. 

Including a description and quotation ' Mackerel scales and mare’s tails, make lofty ships carry low sails' I found was a interesting way of inviting the public to look at my work. I saw that many people were reading the description and also I had a comment on how the signs on top of the box looked like boat sails and that it really went well with the whole yacht theme.  Even though there were some faults throughout the exhibition I really liked my piece as I put in so much effort and time, I calculated my time management correctly which gave me enough time to work on my project and get it to the best of my creative ability. When viewers were looking at my work , they seemed very intrigued and I had a few positive comments.  

'Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure'

- George Edward Woodbury

A very inspirational quote that I will always look to when ever I am stressful or worried about a project, I will never be defeated as I always try my best in everything that I do. So on that note, this is my last blog entry, I hope you have enjoyed reading and also enjoyed viewing mine and the groups work. 

Thankyou :)  

 

Evaluation Of The Exhibition

I was very happy with my final product that I created, I included a variation of my research and creative initiative to get to where I am with my project today. When looking at the space before I started my project I was little bit worried at the fact the space was quite large, but where i placed my project really tied in well with the area. I believe that the work that I made fulfilled the criteria of the brief but I think that there were areas where I may of improved on. 

As nice as Mumbles yacht club was the location was not the best to have an exhibition to take place. The weather was quite unpredictable as it rained the 2 days that we had the exhibition also the distance from the town centre to mumbles was quite far so that gave our group a feeling of sadness as we did not have many visitors. Also the days that we had our exhibition;Tuesday and Wednesday; at the times of 9am and 4pm were inappropriate as the hours are working hours, so that also decreased our views. I think that the yacht club was to big to have our exhibition as well as it was all open planned, this also did not give our work any favours.

What our group could of improved on was the advertisement as we did not have many visitors! We should of definitely decided to create our advertisements earlier on in the project, this would of enhanced our audience viewing. Also we could of improved by  maximising the installation pieces as the area was to open planned and the exhibition did not actually look like a exhibition.

 In conclusion, I believe that our exhibition was not much of a success. Even though each individuals work tied in together the area was way to big to have a exhibition. If I was to organise another exhibition I would choose different times and dates as it excluded a lot of the public and I would also change to location as it was out of the way and was not the right area to view art.

 

The Exhibition!

 So the exhibition has been and gone and personally I found that it did not go as well as we all had planned. Everybody had their work on show , and you could tell that they worked really hard on what they wished to show but the thing was , there were hardly any visitors!

The fact that the location was in Mumbles and that there was poor weather really dampened the mood of the whole exhibition. I believe that if we were to do this exhibition again that we would have it in the centre of the town, I felt very frustrated as I worked very hard on my work and not many people had seen it!  The mumbles yacht club was in isolation to the actual mumble village and the inside of the club was to big for our exhibition.

However, despite the exhibition not being to expectation, I was really fascinated in everybody else's work so I went around and took some photographs of the work!

My work consisted of a small gallery space of uncontrollable weather in a confined space. I wanted to portray the importance of the weather to sailors, so by creating a cycle of different times of the day through photographs it shows what weather the sailors may get in contact with when out to sea. As the weather is so unpredictable, I thought my idea of using a confined space, making things smaller from looking through the telescopic peep hole, that it would give an idea of the weather looking unimportant to the eye.

 

Hannah Johnson's project focused on Sites around the Mumbles area. She wanted to show the unusual sites of mumbles by documenting them in a post card form. I found this project really interesting as there was so much effort put into it. As postcards are a common item to see around the mumbles area , I really like how she has combined postcards with her own images. 

Malin Linstrom's work was quite confusing at the start as there were no photographs involved in the project. After a little explanation I understood that it was all about the pollution and belongings that are left on the beach. The items that she had found down the beach were very peculiar and interesting. I believe that this project would make more sense if photographs were used as this is a photography project. 

Kieran's project focused on the steel works at night in Port Talbot and was to document the difference between there and the mumbles. As there was thirteen photographs in total, I kind of turned the project into a game to see if I could find all the photograph, which did got me very interested into the project. 

  

 

Rebecca Crocker's work was really interesting and creative and I could tell that she put a lot of effort into her work. Her work was based on the mumbles beach and documented the location and also the people. In some of the jars she included sand, leaves and other random items from the beach. I really like how she used battery powered candles to light up the installation pieces, it gave a homely feeling to the whole project.

Overall, I have found everybody's work interesting and I believe that it has all combined very well for the exhibition.

Final Touches & The Risk Assessments

  

So that the exhibition looked professional and interesting I volunteered to make name cards for each member of the group to put by their works. I based the cards on the nautical theme so that they did not look out of place in any way. 

 The reason why I find that professionalism is so important when creating an exhibition and  working within a group is because when things are organized , it allows each member of the group to concentrate on their own works , rather than worry about the little details that follow after. So being professional when working within a team or even on your own makes the exhibition run much more smoothly which also allows the environment be less stressful. 

Rebecca Crocker kindly created a leaflet of which contains a brief explanation of each of the group members work. I really like this leaflet as it is identical to the poster which shows the continuation of the nautical theme and also the hint of professionalism that is shown through my group.  Also the fact that we each was allowed to write a paragraph or so about our work really made the work become our own as well as a group. 

Risk assessment

The purpose of creating a Risk assessment for the exhibition is so that we as a group understand what hazards there may be when the exhibition takes place and how we can try to prevent them from happening at all costs. For the group , we could only think of two hazards that are worth keeping a close eye on! One being the stairs and flooring of the sun roof and the other of an individuals installation piece being stuck on the floor.

After talking about the hazards we then decided on how we were going to approach them and resolve the issues. We decided on creating signs for the stairs and the floor warning the visitors that they may be slippery when wet, and that we would have a sign that also warns about the work being on the floor. 

Later on that evening , when the risk assessment was created, kieran decided that he was not going to have his photographs on the floor , but to have them scattered across the building, so there was one less hazard to be worried about!

Whats inside the box ?

So it has been a very busy couple of weeks but finally my installation is complete! I really cannot wait to show my group members and also the public my work! I edited my final images so that they would stand out more when being place in the box , below are my final outcomes. I decided to go forth with my little gallery idea inside the box, as the project is about the weather. 

I really want to show to people that the reason why I used a gallery space is because the outside is such a uncontrollable place with the weather that when it's placed in a confined and small place it is now controlled.

I am so happy that i have finished constructing my installation piece! I decided on having the photographs on the side of the box in a anti clockwork motion from morning to night and also have the photographs that are on the left wall to be hanging as well as on the wall so that it will give the box more depth and interest.  My light is working perfectly and I have taped the wires into place so that they are not seen when looking through the peephole.  To give the box more of a gallery feel I have placed two chairs , this will also give the box more depth.

I am now all set for the exhibition and quite confident with my final outcome!

 

D.I.Y Time!

With my installation piece , I really wanted to capture the maritime , nautical theme so i decided to get a box of which looked similar to a treasure chest. I also bought a door peep hole that would represent a telescope; this will give the box a more nautical theme as sailors use telescopes to look at the weather when out to sea.

 

To start I measured the thickness of the peep hole and drilled a hole on the side of the box so that I was able to place the peep hole and it would not fall out.  I want my installation to be very sturdy as I want it to look professional and not fall apart when being viewed on the exhibition day.

Once I sorted out the box, I moved onto the electrical part of the installation. I wanted to make this project as personal as possible as I wanted to show how much effort has actually been used to make it to what it is today.  I managed to find all the electrical pieces in the Swansea market. 

 

Here's the electrical side of the project. I decided to use a battery powered source as i did not want my installation piece to be a hazard in any way. This whole electrical piece will operate the lighting that will be inside the box; which is one single light bulb above the peephole powered by a On and Off switch.

Now for the hard part, using a power tool such as the drill I had to be supervised as I am not used to using them! But with that aside I managed to drill another hole in the box alongside the peephole, this hole would be where the switch will be placed.

As the drill bit was a little bit to small for the switch I had to result in filing the hole a bit more so that the switch would fit. I was rather nervous at this point as I was scared to file the hole to big. Fortunately I was successful and the switch fitted perfectly!

After installing the switch it was time to put in the light, I had a few worries about this as I did not know where to place the light, but decided above the porthole so that it would not interfere with my photographs and so that the light would not bounce to much around the inside of the box.

 

When trying out the light I noticed the very harsh brightness within the box, so to prevent this on the project date I will have to use some form of shade to angle the lighting and become softer. 

Now that my installation piece is nearly complete after my hard work I will have to think of ways of how I'm going to place my work inside the box. I am going much more towards the fact of using the inside of the box as a gallery space to show off my photographs as I find that way it will be bringing the importance of photography and the importance of sailing combined.

Final Photographs!

After many shoots I have come to the conclusion on what photographs I will use in my installation. As i wanted to document the weather from day to night I would have to include a variety of photographs showing the change. 

 

Overall in this project I have produced a large amount of material from the shoots with a variety of different tones and lighting. I have edited the photographs down to just five images. I chose these images as the finals as I feel that they would be most effective within my installation and also contain a variety of eye catching colours, views and different shades of lighting.

 When having a meeting with my tutor I was told to think about how I would lay these photographs out within my installation, I will most definitely think of all the possibilities as i want the best for my photographs as well as the viewers.