I used my research to inform my design decisions. As well as this, I tried to keep the crucial elements and themes in my work very evident in my designs.
Idea 1 -
My initial idea involved dangling items related to my presentations from the ceiling. I chose this idea because I wanted the sense of immersion that I had managed in my old plan for previous project idea (dragon cave). What's difficult about this is that I still feel that there's something missing with it. The wall, in particular, is very bland. I included a book holder under the monitor, in case I choose to print things off...
Idea 2 -
Today, I had a consultation with Becci to bounce my ideas around. I mentioned my concerns about how blank my previous design was, as well as the logistics of my idea. We discussed a variety of different, extremely basic thoughts I'd had and we developed a couple of them. One of the strongest ideas I had built off my experience with prop-making from my cosplay hobby. This involved small, hand-made, foam statues of my characters, propped up on plinths in front of the screen.
Idea 3 -
Another idea I mentioned to Becci is similar to the last, in the way that it centres around statues. For this one though, I wanted to work with the idea of having two sort of 'mounted busts' (like a hunter's lodge-esque thing). Artistically I LOVE this idea. I also think it would be super fun to experiment with. An issue with this is that it might not be 100% the most appropriate for my younger audience. As well as this, a problem with both this idea and the previous one is time. To produce these models to a standard I was happy with it would take a very long time, and - unfortunately - with the amount of time I have, I'm not sure I get this done to the best standard (especially whilst having to do the rest of the work).
Ideas 4 & 5 -
Recently, I've decided to completely revamp my idea again. This is because the time issue really started to become prominent in the past few weeks. However, I have luckily noticed some traits in my designs that make them perfect for 3D illusion in 2D. For example, my design for Paddy the dinosaur can shape around the monitor and - by using two layers of print - I can create the illusion he's peering over it without having to actually create it in 3D.
Update: I mentioned this idea in a tutorial with Becci today. She seemed really happy with the idea and seemed to think it was far more sensible, but she did mention maybe adding some drawn up social media logos to add context.
Final Idea -
This is my final plan for my exhibition. I'm really happy with how this worked out! Something I kept forgetting to draw into my plans was that I had the plan from the start to include a keyboard and mouse to really bring the imagery of the a computer to the scene. You can see these as little light grey rectangles in previous design. Other than this, I think most of the design is fairly self-explanatory. The purple speech bubble is where I'll have the information about my project. I won't be able to design this, however, until the class decides on a house style, as this is something we all want to blend together.
BUILD ISSUES...
8/5
Today was the first day that I got to see and work on the space for the exhibition, I helped out with moving temporary walls, sanding display spaces and cleaning up around everyone else as they worked. I've included some images below of my observations of my space and what I've been up to...
Although it was really good to get started on the space and to get to see what I was working with, today also flagged up a lot of issues that need to be worked out in the next week before my deadline for setting up the exhibition.
The first issue I found was the difficulty of sorting out a way to get my content onto the monitor without leaving my tablet out. This would not only look really unprofessional, but would also be a security risk for my personal possessions. We came up with the idea to thread the cable through a hole in the wall and hide my tablet and any additional cables behind a plinth built for another student that's just the other side of the wall. So far, this seems like a really sensible idea. I will update this blog post if/when I encounter any issues.
One big problem I had today was the lack of information. I'd set aside this morning to get all of these details and dimensions down for my space and my monitor so I knew how big my items need to be when I send them to print tomorrow. But at this moment, there seems to be very little information on this...
Information I did find out or get clarified today...
- My exhibition space is far larger than I expected! This can be seen in the second photo.
- As expected, I do need to provide my own wall mount for my headphones, and I did some measuring to work out the best size for it. I ordered one as soon as I got home from the studio.
- I established what the lighting would be like in the exhibition (this was important to me to make sure my prints wouldn't be washed out by the lighting).
- Just generally getting the first look at my space. This was really amazing because it's the first time I could really visualise my finally exhibition.
9/5
Things I sorted today...
- Found out the size of the size of the monitor I am being lent for the exhibition (50cm x 30cm).
- Due to knowing this, I was able to send my main large scale printed pieces to print. This was a huge relief to me, as I should now have plenty of time to collect my print outs and mount them ready for the exhibition deadline.
- Ordered my headphone wall mount from Amazon.
- Discussed and partly established the new size of our display spaces.
- Produced a new in-context plan for my space.
Below is the headphone mount I ordered. There were a few reasons why I chose these particular mounts. First of all, I narrowed my search down to Prime sales (as these have 24hr postage, so I'd have time to get a replacement if they didn't work for whatever reason), and from lowest price to highest (yay poor student life). From here, I was deciding on colour and design. I chose a black mount, to match the monitor I'm being provided with. This was important to me due to the fact that my keyboard and mouse are white/silver, so I want to get a good balance of black and white components so that neither the monitor or keyboard look out of place. As well as this, I chose a mount that folds up. This way when the headphones are in use the space can still look neat and clean. My priority is that I want this mount to be unnoticed, so having it black and fold-able really made the most sense...
Chatting with the class about how big we estimated our display spaces to be was extremely useful. We worked out most of our spaces were about 6ft wide, 2ft wider than we expected. I'm really glad I found this out today, as it meant this evening I've been able to re-jig my display plan a bit to fit the dimensions a bit better. It also meant I was ordering better sized prints when I sent my work off this afternoon.
This new, informed plan can be seen below. Here, I've moved the content around a bit, and displayed it over a photo of my actual exhibition space to give it context. This also helped me to identify any issues whilst I was creating it, as I can see the lighting of my space (this could affect how clearly my audience seen the screen). Sorry for the quality of this! Unfortunately, the quality of the photograph I was building on top of wasn't great...
11+12/5
I spent this weekend cleaning up the items I plan to use in my exhibition space. Whilst this seems like an unimportant job, the keyboard and mouse I'm having in my display have been used a lot and I don't want the cleanliness of them (or lack of) to affect how people view my work. For example, below you can see the state of the mouse I'm going to be using...
While it's not terrible, I'd just prefer it was a lot cleaner and tidier than this. For this reason, I used this weekend to make sure I had everything in place and clean enough for my show, so that all I'd need to do is mount it all! Below, you can see they keyboard all cleaned up, and the wall mount I chose (in the pack of two, one was actually slightly wonky)...
13/5
Today, I headed into the studio at 10am and - along with a small group - painted the exhibition spaces. My jobs today included; painting the bottoms and corners of the walls in all areas, touching up the black walls, painting the ceiling black in the enclosed space, painting the skirting boards black in the enclosed area, painting over the drawings in the central space, and tidying the paintwork on the walls near the entrance. As well as this, myself and Jasz cleaned all but one of the rollers and pallets we found/were given. In total, I was working in the exhibition space for just under 7hrs today. I'm really really proud of how much we got done and think it was a really successful day!
In my lunch break today, I picked up my print outs and spray mounted them onto foamboard. I had intended to get them cut out today, but have moved that job to tomorrow now. The printing quality is brilliant and I'm really happy with how they turned out. However, if I was to do it again, I might size down my robot character, R4Y a bit, as he looks just the slightest bit pixelated up close...
Something else I've just managed to get sorted is testing an idea I had. I got an extra, smaller R4Y printed, so I could test out putting EL wire in his eyes to make them glow. This was only a small spark of an idea, because my suspicion was that the mezzanine would be too light for the lights to have any benefit. Still, I tested the wire in two different methods, which I have shown in the video below...
14/5
Today, I spent my morning painting the skirting boards in the large black area and touching up some of yesterday's paint work..
Once this was sorted, I cut out my foam board pieces. I'd made life a bit hard for myself by having so many awkwardly shaped pieces to cut out, but they turned out better than I was expecting. Still, the edges of my pieces are quite rough and I'm not totally happy with them, so I'm going to bring some sandpaper in tomorrow to clean them up a bit...
After this was sorted, myself, Max and Sarah discussed how much space we'd be needing, so that we could split up the wall we're sharing. This was a really important job that I'm so relieved we got done today, because it would have been quite easy for us to forget about something like this...
As well as this, I spoke to Jason, Ade and one of the technicians about the situation with my monitor, and got a lot of things clarified, so I know what I need to do tomorrow to make that part of my day quite chill! I also found out today that I am definitely getting the computer, instead of just the monitor, which I'm super happy about.
