Reflection:
For the final project of first year we were tasked with creating a piece of work that allows us to reflect upon the module. Focusing on my strengths, areas of improvement, and overall how I have worked within this module.
I began by sitting down and going through my website to remind myself of this semesters projects, making note of what worked well, and other areas that didn't. One aspect I have struggled with is finding a balance between too much, and too little development in terms of my ideas. In the 3D project I rushed into an idea too quickly without properly considering if it was the best direction, then in the following 4D project I went in the opposite direction and ended up spending too much time planning, not allowing myself enough time to complete the work to a standard I was happy with.
Going into this project I wanted to focus in on this idea of becoming sidetracked by a certain idea, or making my work too niche and overcomplicated.
Whilst speaking to my friends and discussing our ideas, I used an analogy to explain the issues I often find myself having in my work. I explained that if the project set was to create work about a "natural landscapes", a simple solution to this would be to just paint a field of flowers, however, I would overcomplicate this and decided to focus on something niche, like decaying flowers, or fungus. A lot of the time my ideas are still relevant to the topic, just not the easiest, or best solution. I decided to continue this analogy into my work for the project, planning to create a series of images, slowly zooming in, revealing more details, and shifting the focus of the work.
I began by sitting down and going through my website to remind myself of this semesters projects, making note of what worked well, and other areas that didn't. One aspect I have struggled with is finding a balance between too much, and too little development in terms of my ideas. In the 3D project I rushed into an idea too quickly without properly considering if it was the best direction, then in the following 4D project I went in the opposite direction and ended up spending too much time planning, not allowing myself enough time to complete the work to a standard I was happy with.
Going into this project I wanted to focus in on this idea of becoming sidetracked by a certain idea, or making my work too niche and overcomplicated.
Whilst speaking to my friends and discussing our ideas, I used an analogy to explain the issues I often find myself having in my work. I explained that if the project set was to create work about a "natural landscapes", a simple solution to this would be to just paint a field of flowers, however, I would overcomplicate this and decided to focus on something niche, like decaying flowers, or fungus. A lot of the time my ideas are still relevant to the topic, just not the easiest, or best solution. I decided to continue this analogy into my work for the project, planning to create a series of images, slowly zooming in, revealing more details, and shifting the focus of the work.
|
To try and avoid mistakes of the last few projects, I created a rough outline of what/when I wanted certain things completed, allowing me to stay on track. I looked into the video Powers of Ten by Eames Office in 1977. I liked the concept of zooming in through my paintings, but was unsure if I would be able to execute it well. Despite this, I decided to challenge myself by going ahead with this idea, because in a lot of the projects I tend to stay within my comfort zone, so in the reflection project I figured now was the time to push myself further.
|
|
I also decided to incorporate some of my strengths, which I believe to be my use of colour, as well as incorporating weird twists into my work. I've found that if I add a certain strange aspect to my work I tend to be more excited about completing it. I decided to have the viewpoint zoom in closer to the ground, showing grass surrounding something strange, possibly a severed hand, or another disfigured body part.
|
|
I planned to have the video with music in the background, either a slightly creepy song, or an extremely upbeat one to contrast with the weirder images included towards the end of the video. Some songs I considered were: No Surprises by Radiohead, Where Is My Mind? by Pixies, Something in the Way by Nirvana, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Tame Impala, as well as many others. Ultimately, I decided to go with Phoebe Bridgers' cover of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters. I think this song is the perfect soundtrack as it has an almost haunting feeling behind its instrumental, as well as Phoebe being one of my favourite musicians.
|
When developing my ideas, I really liked the concept of adding my own voiceover into the background of the video, but in doing this I would probably choose a more upbeat soundtrack rather than the Nothing Else Matters track. After creating a realistic timeline of when I would have certain aspects finished by, it became clear to me that creating both the voiceover AND the soundtrack video was going to be very tight for time. I made the decision to prioritise the soundtrack video first, allowing myself to focus on the extra voiceover concept only when the initial video was completed.
Below is the 7 canvases I created depicting the different scenes, with each one leading on from the one behind. I created them using acrylic paint on canvas, 2 mediums I have used previously but not my favourite. I decided to use actual canvases instead of just thick card or paper, to get more of a texture to my work, however, once photographed and zoomed in so closely, the canvas texture makes the images slightly fuzzy.
Initially I used the app Spliced to edit the images together, but decided to try using photoshops animation features, making use of the tween tool to fade between shots. I focussed a lot on the timings of the video, trying to match a similar pace to the backing music, whilst also allowing for some contrasting moments, adding to the unnerving feeling throughout the piece.
Due to copyright issues my video is unlisted on YouTube, so cannot be accessed directly on my website, however I have embedded the link below, and when copied into your search engine it should take you directly to my final piece.
Due to copyright issues my video is unlisted on YouTube, so cannot be accessed directly on my website, however I have embedded the link below, and when copied into your search engine it should take you directly to my final piece.
https://youtube.com/shorts/jDJO-vrPDqU
In the final Reflection project, I feel I challenged myself and pushed myself to a healthy amount, without taking it further as I have with other projects, which isn't beneficial to either myself, or my work. Overall, I think it would have been nice to include a voiceover to the video as it would help explain my exact concept, while the video I have created may be misinterpreted by some viewers. I definitely think I could make some improvements, for example, the paintings could have been made at a larger scale allowing me to add more details in each piece. However, in doing this it would drastically affect the timeline I set out for myself to try and prevent issues of over pilling my work, in very short time periods. So while I feel some adjustments could be made to improve my final product, I am really happy with how I have worked throughout the final project of first year, as I truly put in effort to correct some of the issues I have spotted in my usual routines within work.