Installation Project, Evaluation

I have spent a few days thinking about and analysing my Installation and have come up with a number of points which I liked, parts that needed improving, notes for future projects as well as things I’d change..

Firstly, as a whole I really enjoyed the Installation week. I was able to mix with people form other disciplines and learn more about themselves and their course. I now have a greater understanding of the other course and how they work and have made a couple of friends id never normally think to talk to.

At first I wasn’t at all sure on our concept and idea and whether it was good enough but looking back I think it worked extremely well. Unlike some of the other Installations our idea was deep and left the audience provoked and thinking about some of the issues we touched upon. This worked a lot better than I anticipated and we really had a very strong opinionated reaction off people which really made me feel good. I also am glad that we took the time to think over other ideas and really work as a team to get to our final point as it really helped boost my problem solving skills and made us negotiate which is one thing I know I needed work on.

I still have mixed emotions on whether I would choose to perform my Installation in the same space being given the choice again. On one hand I was very very very cold the whole time and being the middle of winter an outdoor venue probably isn’t the best choice. The extreme weather conditions did not help this at all!!!! Also there was really poor communication to any group that wasn’t situated in the studio which annoyed me as there happened to be a few rep meeting which discussed issues we really needed to know about which we missed and crucial information like when our breaks were we didn’t find out until the last minute. This also made it hard for us to find a member of staff when we needed one. However on the other hand I really enjoyed having a bigger space that we could play around with and spread our stations out more. This helped the ascetics of our piece especially with the use of levels and the balconies as we wouldn’t have had them if we chose the studio to perform in. I also thought that our space gave us a lot more freedom and independence as other groups would have to stop there fit ups during the time when the lights were out, we could decide ourselves when was best for us to do what job without worrying about other groups. We could then decide our own breaks, meaning we had the opportunity to see everyone else’s Installations and use the process completely as our own which I don’t think a lot of the groups got to do.

One main point that stood out to me was that the Gender Equality section was the most popular of our topics. Now whether this is because of the strong natured facts we had or whether it was completely down to the fact that we spoke and performed this section I am unsure but I can’t help but feel that the use of performance was very useful and engaged the audience and if I was to do this again I would definitely incorporate this more. I am glad we used the reflection section of our piece and it creates another visual section to our Installation throughout the day whilst also giving us the opportunity to see what was most popular and what sparked comment so that if we were to develop this further we would have an idea of what to incorporate. We received some negative reactions to our information but in hind sight that is exactly what we wanted and expected meaning we succeeded at our task.
Overall I am very glad for the extra time to reflect with our tutors as it really gave me a good end to our project and really helped me to understand the effect our installation had on people. This process has helped me to grow as a person and I can take ALOT of this through to my course and develop my skills further which is extremely beneficial.

Installation Project, Reflection

After having a few days to reflect on our project I have been able to evaluate our Installation more.

We took all the post it notes from station four and collated them all into a number of collages..

It has been interesting to look at these findings as its seems that most of the comments left are based around the Gender Equality station. These are very opinionated and it seems that the comments made are very strong views from people who have been provoked or shocked by what they’ve heard.
I think the reason that this is the most commented on issue is that these facts were part of our performance station which was well received. I think because this gave them something to look at these are that facts that were best received and stuck with people.

If I was to do this Installation again I would definitely keep the use of the treasure map style floor as this worked well in giving the audience an understanding of what to do. I would also use more interactive or performance aspect as I felt this worked better then the book or screen to look at as the information was taken in better this way.

Installation Final Week, Day 5

Friday morning was our scheduled Get Out time and as we had limited amount of things to do we decided to come in at 11:00am. When we turned up we found all our chalk drawings still in tact and our tables and stations all still there.
Firstly we took everything back to its home before cutting down all the post it notes, (which we saved for a reflection/evaluation piece). We then found an empty bucket and covered the paving slaps with water. As one of us did that the rest used sponges and brooms to wipe away the chalk. This was a very easy process!!

After everything was done we attended the initial debrief with everyone else from Level 4 DMTA. I don’t think this worked very well at all as lots of people were just disagreeing with each other and not coming out with valid points. I don’t think it helped that there was around 100 people there who all had separate views and opinions on the project. I feel that this would have worked a lot better in DMTA or Installation groups with less people so everyone could be heard in a more civilised situation. I do however have a couple of points that I am going to make during Tuesday’s debrief with my team but am taking time to develop and reflect on this process so I can clearly understand how the Installation was received.

Installation Final Week, Day 4/Showings

This morning we woke up to find that it had rained/snowed overnight. For an Installation that was mainly chalk on the floor of an outdoor space this was not good!
We arrived at Bruford to find that our Installation was well a tad bit worse for wears…

Our first idea was to grab some brooms and attempt to sweep away as much water as possible. This failed.
As the boys carried in fitting up the technical aspects of our project we carried on brain storming in order to find a way of fixing our Installation.
We then came up with the idea of using heat guns to dry the paving slabs so off we went in search of heat guns.

On our return we found the technicians checking the safety of our venue. We were quickly enlightened to the fact that heat on a cold surface will cause a crack to form and with our venue being a listed building we could not afford for that to happen. So away went the heat guns and out came the endless rolls of paper towels we used to hand dry the floor by getting on our knees and scrubbing.

As you can see Nikita was not impressed by this.

So finally after hours of work and re-chalking we had recreated out Installation and we’re ready and raring to go!!! Until the down pour at 13:00 which we were stood outside performing in!!!

Luckily the sun soon came out and we had the great opportunity to see our audiences reactions first hand and how they were all effected by the information they received.

I throughly enjoyed this process. We then rotated out which meant we got a chance to experience everyone else’s Installation which was great to see the hard work and time that had been put in to them all. I really liked how different people interpreted the brief.

We returned from our break to find that someone, a fellow group member, had made the rational decision to close down our project. So we quickly rallied together and re opened in time for yet another hail storm but a rather large group of audience members as well.

Overall the experience was eye opening and interesting and even though I was very cold and tired, having the chance to perform was an exciting experience for me.

Next we aim to get rid of all of props and things we hired and read though all our comments made on the post it notes so we can create a findings board/collage of what people got form out work.

Installation Project, Group Posts & Referencing

So during our Installation we have spent a lot of time talking over out Facebook page and also researching valuable information on various websites below are some of the sites I have personally used to research my delegated topic as well as posts that I found were useful from our group page. Enjoy…

http://ukfeminista.org.uk/take-action/facts-and-statistics-on-gender-inequality/

http://listverse.com/2008/11/20/10-extreme-examples-of-gender-inequality/

http://www.womendeliver.org/knowledge-center/facts-figures/gender-equity/

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29318005

Installation Final Week, Day 3

This morning we met as a group at 10:00am to begin what we knew was going to be a very long, tiring day for us all, and boy was it!!!

We started the day with a Get In/Fit Up of the lights and projector with all their cables. Problem 1! The projection was not working for us at all. So we changed to plan B and found a monitor we could use instead..

This actually worked out better for us as most of the information included on our video is the type of news you would watch on a TV anyway.
Meanwhile, whilst the boys carried on fitting the lights up me and Nikita decided to tape up the floor as this was a vital part of our Installation, this is where we came across problem 2. THE TAPE WOULD NOT STICK TO THE FLOOR!!! Initially when we tested this out the floor was dry and we hadn’t anticipated what would happen on a damp floor so we had to quickly think up a plan B. We headed over to Estates to check if it would be alright to chalk onto the floor and they agreed on the condition that we cleaned it all up during the get out. So we headed off to Sidcup in search of chalk. THIS WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!

The first place we tried was the Co-Operative..

No luck!
So we moved onto a local card/craft shop..

No joy here either!!
Then we tried Tesco and

you guessed it no luck here either!!

Close to giving up we headed into a tiny little off-licence on the way back in hope that maybe they would have some and luckily THANK GOD, they had one left!! So we bought the last packet of chalk from the lovely lady and headed back.

On arrival back we grabbed our sticks of chalk and began marking out the floor ready for our rehearsal, this was very successful!!!

We took a much needed lunch break then gathered back together and worked as a team to set up Station 4, which included a spider web of rope, paper clips and post it notes..

Finally, we were ready to rehearse so we grabbed a couple of free members from other groups to come and take a look at our Installation before our tutors came to check on us. This went well!!!
We were then approached by another group who gave us their awful dilemma that they had a box full of pizza and needed to discard of the pizza in order for them to use the box. I mean how could we refuse that?!?

Fuelled up and ready to go we performed our Installation to our Tutors who gave us some helpful tips on creating signs to guide people to our space, speaking louder and making a couple of our stations clearer.

We are now at the point where we have a few things to do before the big showing!!! Tomorrow we aim to come in for 10:00am and set up some signs for the audience. We also need to re-rig our lights and post it notes. We are hoping that our chalk markings will have lasted the night and the weather will have held up but failing that we have planned a precautionary time slot for us to re mark the floor. We will then rehearse and perform our Installation.

EXCITING!!!!!!

Installation Final Week, Day 2

What could you wake up to that could possibly jeopardise our Installation? SNOW THATS WHAT!!!

So this morning we woke up to find that it had snowed in Sidcup, which was an issue as today was the day we were planning on marking out our floor design and setting up our fixtures. We decided to meet at Bruford at 10:30am for a production meeting to share everything we had currently made and to discuss what we had left to do! After meeting and checking our space again we all agreed that we were happy with what we had already created and were stuck on what to do next so we sought the help of our tutor Kathy.

She agreed that there wasn’t much for us to do other than check the projector, so we decided to rehearse our performance section whilst we sourced a projector. Our rehearsal went well and helped us to sort levels and to feel more confident with the dialog.

Once we had found a projector we came across the issue that our initial plan and spacing of this wouldn’t work. We decided to adapt our idea and use a monitor and change the spacing of our stations or to change the angle of the projector and move the other stations. This is something we have discussed and will finalise tomorrow morning once we finish the set up.
All in all though our team work has really come on and developed much further which we are very with! WE ARE ONE BIG HAPPY TEAM!!!

Tomorrow is understandably going to be a long busy day and I look forward to seeing the challenging that await…

Installation Final Week, Day 1

Today was the the first day of the week of our Installation so we all met at 10:00am in the studios as one big group to make sure we were all clear on what needed to be done. During this time I was nominated as group rep to feed back to the other groups on what was happening and how we had progressed.
My group then went off to our designated area and had a group meeting deciding what needed to be done today. Sophie and Jonas went off to finish editing the video footage whilst Nikita and Simon headed to the Bru Bar to complete our book of facts. I went off to speak to Kathy about our budget and spending the money as well as going to find Jonathan to look at getting some tabs from the set store to use. This left Matt to create the Blurb and find out more about our lighting fixtures.
After completing these tasks Simon and I spoke to Linda in the cafe about borrowing some off their outdoor tables for the week. This was successful!! Yay another thing crossed off our list!!! We took these too our area so we could begin to decide on a plan of where everything could be placed ready for our mark out.
We then realised that until tomorrow and Wednesday when we have the rest of our equipment there wasn’t much left for us to do so we headed home to finish creating some of our props. I spent the afternoon making the cue cards for our performance aspect. These are on pink and blue cards to symbolise the gender inequality and are easy to read and interpret.

Now we are ready to collate everything we’ve made and do our final checks tomorrow and start discussing how we will go about forming our Mark Out and Fit Up.

Here are a couple of pictures from our productive morning…

Nikita working hard on our Factual Book😂

Team building in order to get all our tables and tabs over the locked fence and into our space!!!

Installation Project, Group Meeting

On Tuesday Morning, before our meeting with our tutors, my group had 3 hours spare for a meeting that would finalise and give us a better understanding on how we are going to stage our Installation.

We met in the Bru Bar and began by brainstorming initial ideas on what each of our stations could include. We decide on our first containing an book or facts for visual and interactive purpose. Our second being a silent video of relevant news stories based on current religious issues. Our third being an audio station in which two of us, on rotation announce shocking facts about gender and how it affects people and our fourth which will be where the audience can respond to what they have experienced and record this on Post It notes which will then be displayed. By doing this we ended up with a final decision on what we were going to include in each of the four stations, what each of our jobs would be during the Installation and what would need to stage this. Here are the notes we formed…

After completing this we moved on to creating a full equipment list of what we were going to have to buy and source over the next week and who would be in charge of doing this. My job is to creating the Que Cards for our third station and source the post it notes, paper clips and string for Station 4. Here is the list we came up with…

We then moved on to viewing our space and decided where would place each station for the best reactions and to be as safe as we could be. After ten or so minutes looking around we came up with a rough plan which I then sketched down…

Finally we began to creating an initial schedual for all the things that needed to be done and by who before next week begins. We also started breaking down next week into days and time slots so we could figure out when was best to do what for our project. However we only got up to Wednesday before we were called in for our meeting so we decided to look back over this on Monday and things would be changed and we felt we were in a good place and could revisit this another time.

We finished the day by sending emails out to relevant people, like Jonathon the Technician about what we would need to hire and use and booking these nice and early.

Overall I think we are currently in the best possible position for next week.

Installation Project, Finalised venue

This week we came to a final deduction on where to hold our Installation.
We chose an outdoor venue, the courtyard in Lamorby House and we felt the levels and diversity of the space would really help our Installation to take shape.
Our venue has more than one entrance and exit which is perfect for our idea of Navigation and moving from point A to B. It also includes various levels and spaces which can act as obsticlas for the audience. This is one idea we are very keen on using. Another reason was the flooring was perfect for us to mark up and draw on co-ordinates which we decided would help our project a lot.

Here are a few images of our chosen area…