Unit X - Reflection




Unit X - Reflection 


Throughout the course of Unit X, I’ve definitely found myself being more open to alternative ways of working due to having to work as a part of a team.  I felt apprehensive at first, worried that I wouldn’t be able to maintain my individuality if I was restricted to working with other people. I’ve come to release that working as a group allows you to further explore your ideas as you have a group of people supporting you and giving their own thoughts on your work.
I worked closely with Sophie in my group, producing collaborative work and using our own ideas to develop our work further in the same direction. I found that this close collaboration made me much more confident in experimenting with materials and scale as I felt I had someone supporting me with my ideas. As well as this, I felt the group tutorials, especially the ones we did with 3D design were really beneficial to my own practice as I was exposed to alternate ways of working, and different routes you can take to develop your practice.
It was interesting have to present your work to a group of people, as it forced you to refine your concept and make sure that everything you were doing could be explained and also made sense within your project. I think I will take this with me in the future and be more vocal about my work to other people, as only when you speak about it do you recognise gaps in your work.

During this project, I began to realise that drawing could become a much more valuable part of my development process, as mid way through this project I took some time away from making and focused on drawing and using this to realise and develop my concepts. Thinking through drawing allowed me to understand the types of materials I wanted to use as I could visualise, through varying brush marks etc., the quality of materials I wanted to combine and how they would work together. However, my material selection process was also heavily influenced by Kate Haywood’s work. I rarely find myself taking such inspiration from one artist, and have this be a constant through the course of a project. This allowed me to really explore the ways I could use specific materials, almost prescribing myself a boundary in which to work in.

So, although I feel I have developed a new way of working (through drawing and prescribed boundaries) I think I still have a way to go with this project and my development of materials, and I plan to continue this project over summer. I have become really interested in using contrasting materials and seeing how to react with one another, but also using photography/film not only as a form of documentation but also as a different way of drawing and making.
I also feel I could become more aware of how my work could become commercial or imagining how it could live in an environment. The Inspirer talks provoked this thought, as it was a reminder that one-day we wont be in the ‘university bubble’ and will be working in the industry and will need to find our place in the industry.


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