The purpose of this assignment was review the work produced during PART 2 Visual Exploration and reflect on how the work was made to demonstrate an understanding of the processes and think through the implications for my own practice.
Key words from the brief:
- Look back through all of the work you have produced in this part of the course, especially the final outcomes of each of the seven exercises
- Present what you think is an interesting and varied collection of work
- A selective sketchbook or portfolio that underpins some of the thought processes and decisions you have made
- Examples of your work and also how you work
- Visually present your creative making process
- Five to seven minutes long
- Notes from your learning log or a voiceover
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The main thing is to capture something of yourself in what you’re saying, showing, and how you say it.
Making the work
Generating ideas
The brief for this exercise was quite specific about the requirements of the content, but left the choice of format fairly open.
Using rhizome thinking from 2.4 Word associations, I created a map of requirements from the brief against the outputs produced for the seven exercises.
I decided that the best way to present the work in an engaging way was using video.
Scriptwriting
I used the outputs and reflections from my learning log to create an outline script giving some idea of the shape and timing of the video.
This is the final version that was heavily edited down: Assignment 2 script v0.3
Throughout Visual exploration I was capturing additional video and photographic content for the assignment, and this was also factored into the script.
I walked through the script to get a more accurate idea of timings. Past experience showed that I was far more likely to end up with too much material.
Production
I had two options for shooting the video; a Canon camera or my iPhone X. I did a couple of tests and found that the iPhone X gave the best results. It also has a timelapse feature that I wanted to experiment with.
The video was all shot using natural lighting, some was handheld and some on a tripod. The audio was recorded using just the iPhones built in microphone, so the audio quality it quite variable.
Post production
The video was compiled using Adobe Premiere. Previously I’d only used Adobe Rush which is a lightweight version of the editing application. This has some limitations, particularly around editing and layering separate video and audio tracks, that meant I needed to upgrade to the full application. I was a bit nervous about doing this, but actually found the interface incredibly straightforward to use, and when I needed help it was easy to find online.
I edited the whole piece together following the script and ended up overrunning by 3-minutes. Unfortunately this couldn’t be fixed without cutting out whole sections.
There are things I could have improved on through further editing such as removing ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ from the voiceover and equalising the audio, but this required a level of editing skill that I didn’t have and would have taken a couple of days fiddling to perfect.
The finished work
I think the final video meets the requirements of the brief and is paced to keep the content interesting and engaging.
Reflections
Reflection on the assignment
- I was surprised at the quality I was able to achieve using the iPhone video capabilities.
- It’s a shame I didn’t video more of the work in progress because is the most engaging content.
- Lesson: Read through and consider each PART as a whole before starting any of the exercises.
- It’s also a pity that I had to edit out whole chunks of content because I think some it was interesting.
Reflections on PART 2 Visual Exploration
Reflect on your outcomes but more so on your creative process – what worked for you, and how might you adapt these approaches for future projects
Flow and play emphasised the importance of finding ways-of-working that push the ‘normal’ or ‘known’ boundaries of creative practice, so that true innovative thinking can happen. For this to work there needs to be some level of risk taking on the part of the artist.
In my reflections on 2.0 Getting into the zones, I went as far to say that: “this is the core purpose of practice/research”.
For these reasons I found the use of rules based process and chance as really interesting ways to achieve a state of experimentation.
The exercises where I was able to achieve the highest level of ‘play’ were 2.1 Multi-dimensional thinking and 2.8 Composing pictures and the outputs are most unlike work I would typically produce. On reflection, I think that was because the finished work was made using an experimental process, rather than just for generating ideas.
In parallel with my OCA work I also started being more experimental with my life drawing, focusing on gesture and dynamics. This experimentation resulted in some interesting work.
The main reflection point that comes out of these exercises is the question: How do I find ways to express my more dynamic expressive self in my final artwork? This has something to do with me taking more creative risk and giving up control or being too precious.
What have you enjoyed doing the most, or the least, and why?
I enjoyed doing all of the exercises but I think 2.1 Multi-dimensional thinking was probably my favourite because the output was so unexpected and different to my usual work. It demonstrated to me a way to move quite radically away from my fairly conservative image making. For me, using this technique as a way to respond to a future brief would be taking a creative risk and I feel excited by that possibility.
Which pieces of work do you feel have been most successful and why?
I think all the exercises in this part of the course have been successful in that their purpose was to introduce me to, and give me some understanding of process led techniques as a way to generate ideas and/or make work. For me they fulfilled the criteria of being practice research.
What area(s) would you like to develop further?
I think I would like to experiment with all of the process led approaches in my future. I have to find a way to move the subjects and themes of my work on to develop in new and unexpected ways so that I can create a really interesting visual language. It feels like these exercises contain some of the keys that will help that to happen.
Practice research question: How can I use the process and rules based approaches from PART 2 Visual approaches in future work?
Illustration 