Keeping up momentum

Workshops held on: 04/04/20 and 25/04/20

Duration: 2 x 2-hours

Tutor: Bryan Eccleshall

Padlet: https://oca.padlet.org/helen416376/9q7g0fa5uard

Background

Keeping up momentum was an OCA workshop initiated by the OCA London Study Group in response to the Covid-19 lockdown as a way to engage and support students during a difficult time. Both sessions were facilitated by OCA tutor Bryan Eccleshall.

The first session was very structured and involved a group discussion about strategies for managing your work during the lockdown. There was also an opportunity to share work with the group for feedback and I presented an early version of You are here.

Bryan had preloaded several pieces of work from artists, photographers and authors that in some way related to the lockdown onto the Padlet page, and these became the source material/inspiration for a number of collaborative projects.

After the workshop several people posted up ideas for collaborative projects with a request for other students to get involved.

I posted up an idea based on a short poem that was one of the source materials:

Rabbit Hide and Seek

I was running through a dark forest when
A rabbit did appear

A ball of white cute fluffyness

I’m sure his look was queer

He bounded right up too my feet

And then he looked at me

And beckoned me to follow him

And hid behind a tree

“I can’t play hide and seek with you”

I really don’t have time”

His face became so sorrowfull

I said “oh dear, yes, fine”

So we played a little game or two

The rabbit he did win

I thanked him for the game we played

And his smile became a grin

I framed the collaborative idea in the following way:

Objective: To create a series of images/illustrations/responses to Rabbit hide and seek.

Process:

Each participant selects one or more of the sections to illustrate/respond to in whatever way they choose.
The deadline for completing the initial set of images/responses would be Monday 20th April.
All participants then get on a video call (Hugh to facilitate) to review the images/responses and compile a number of sequences to work alongside the poem.
We present/review the outputs and any lessons learned at the next tutorial

Two students agreed to participate: Han Qin (took the first stanza), and Rae Spungin (took the fourth stanza).

How the process worked

We each agreed to illustrate one or more of the stanzas in the poem. Images were posted onto the padlet and we communicated through email.

About a week before the final workshop we all had a discussion over Zoom to agree how to collate the different elements together.

We agreed that the final output would be a PDF series of images running alongside hand written text of the poem.

The final version of the PDF was collated in InDesign.

The outputs

My contribution

I selected the second and third stanzas of the poem to illustrate, a total of four illustrations.

Rabbit hide and seek rabbit at feet small — He bounded right up too my feet
And then he looked at me

Rabbit hide and seek page2 small — And beckoned me to follow him
And hid behind a tree

EPSON MFP image — “I can’t play hide and seek with you”
I really don’t have time”

The final version of the PDF slides are here: Rabbit hide and seek (low res) v1.0

Reflections

What went well

The process of working independently and then bringing it all together towards the end worked well
One of my objectives for the illustrations I produced was to try and integrate more texture into the imagery. I achieved this through using a print roller and ink on A2 paper and then photographing and layering these in Photoshop to give an etched feel.

What I’d do differently/better next time

Rather than each person working with an individual part, it would have been more interesting for everyone to work with and respond to the poem as a whole. This would mean more engagement and direct reaction to the work of other participants.
I don’t think my final image works that well but I had to go with it because I ran out of time.