Unit X: Louise saves the day!

OK. So I must admit, I’ve spent this week feeling rather lost with the project. After Tuesday’s group meeting at Hilton House, it seemed that we were being pushed to condense all our ideas into one final outcome. Now, it’s all very well to collaborate but since we are a group of nine creatives with very different ideas I couldn’t help but feel a sense of panic at the thought that my own Easter research might get lost in the process.  It’s a given that in collaborating with other artists and designers we have to surrender some of our own ideas and be open to new perspectives. Thats perfectly fine by me, but what worried me was that it would be too difficult to reach consensus when dealing with such a vast pool of ideas.

However, after today’s tutorial with Louise Adkins I feel a little more optimistic and can certainly stop hyperventilating into a paper bag at the thought of relinquishing some creative control.

Firstly, when we tried to explain all the various ideas we had in mind for this Unit, it became very clear that perhaps at the moment a lot of our research is quite superficial.  Louise suggested that we might have jumped to conclusions too soon about our chosen superstitions without having enough knowledge on which to base a rich outcome. To remedy this she suggested that we spend the weekend looking at artists, films and books to build a fuller background of research to inspire our work.

Louise also gave us the option of exhibiting multiple outcomes on the same collaborative theme. She suggested that we take on an almost curatorial role as though we are artists working towards a show. It is still important that we return to the group and maintain a common ground but we have the freedom to explore our own interpretation of the theme.

As a result, we have divided the group into two sub-groups; people interested in Film and those interested in Textile Practices. I belong to the latter as my research is geared towards a more 3D textiles outcome and fortunately I am not alone in this. This is great because it means I can still collaborate with people from my group to create an outcome that is ambitious and reflective of all our interests.

After the tutorial, I had a brief talk with Flavia who is willing to collaborate with me in an installation. We concluded that we are both interested in textile techniques and processes. In particular, Flavia suggested using dissolvable fabric and possibly recording the process as a starting point. Similarly, I want to continue pushing my research into fabric manipulation but push this to an extreme as we both agree that we both want something that is ambitious to reflect the theme of ‘The Irrational’ in a figurative way. Currently, we can’t quite visualise a final outcome but this is good. I now have a sense of direction and a greater sense of relief knowing I can push forward some of my own ideas without completely going rogue on the group!