UNIT 8; OUTCOME SLSL
FINAL OUTCOME
As discussed in my last blogpost my outcome for the SLSL project was a magazine which told the story of working with Hart including: interviews with the UAL artists involved along with some of their personal work for the project; interviews with Helen highlighting what Hart Club and The Great Grey do; my own collages from the project; and the work from Hart's The Great Grey.
Personal Feedback:
"I am really happy with how this piece turned out, I feel the final magazine looked professional, with high quality printing. The work from Hart was incredible, yet this meant I had some concerns about my own style being lost in the collection of different works. My role for this project was the designer and editor of the magazine, this gave me insight to working with clients, as I had to send a couple of drafts to my interviewees before they were happy with the outcomes. I feel I've massively improved in my photoshop skills for this project, but there is still work to be done on the resolution of some designs."
SOUTH LONDON STORY LAB
Our set-up for the South London Story Lab event was: a binder which contained our work from The Great Grey, a film about muscle memory and skills by my team-mates Elina and Tracey, the Working With Hart magazine and a feedback box. Because out main question for the group when we ran out art therapy sessions was "How Does Art Make You Feel?", we wanted to ask our audience the same question. This was partly to create an interactive element to our piece, and to gain feedback and insight for our project concept.
Tutor Feedback:
"The work is great, it looks fab and its really emotive, however the printing needs to be improved."
I had a lot of issues with printing when nearing the end of the project, this was primarily due to time management, as I only left myself two days for printing. Due to the issues with coronavirus I was unable to visit Chelsea to print, which is what most of my peers recommended, I would like to do this in future projects for a more professional finish.
Furthermore, after the tutor feedback I removed the white overlap from the magazine, I initially was scared to do it because of the cost of printing, but felt it looked a lot better with the edges cut.
Other people's work
This was one of my favourite pieces from the event, the artist of this project was studying a hindu place of worship, and created an amazing photobook of their investigation. I was really impressed by the printing quality and wished my own magazine had a similar quality, I found out this was done at Chelsea - where I'll be going to print next time!
Here is another one of my favourites from the exhibition. This artist's outcome was really simple yet still very effective, the comic combines comedy with fantastic character design, it's simplicity makes it a very successful piece as it allows a strong focus. I often find when creating my own projects I have a lot of ideas, media and styles within my work. During third year I plan to hone and develop my style, and the idea of simplicity which is so effective in this piece is something for me to take inspiration from!
CONCLUSION
The South London Story Lab project was a fantastic learning opportunity for me to move forward when considering my post-graduation pathway of art therapy. I had the opportunity not only to work with an art therapist, but learn more about working with vulnerable people and community groups. My main focus for the project was to consider my career pathways and gain integral experience in the field of art therapy. After my feedback from the last assessment I felt I wanted to improve my digital skills, feeling this would improve my confidence with using photoshop to both create and enhance art.
Originally when working with Hart Club we encountered a couple of hurdles. Initially the art therapist we worked with was quite protective over her group and was reluctant to us coming into the group with no clear objective for the project. We felt it was important to move forward and to gain her trust to create both a project proposal and a 'lesson plan' for our own workshop. Our main concerns were how we could approach a very sensitive group, with early diagnosis of dementia, without causing distress and without intruding on the therapeutic process. Within the group we compiled a list of subjects to avoid such as the obvious, talk about dementia and any direct questions about mental and physical health. We decided to run our group using collage as we felt this would also allow for the group to feel less vulnerable as they may not feel comfortable putting their own work into the world.
A requirement for the group was also to create consent forms before we were to do anything with their work, luckily we ended up getting on really well with the group and everyone was very excited by the possibility their artwork could be shown at an exhibition.
During the sessions I began to get a real feel of the key aims of group-art therapy; to encourage the clients to produce art, but not to make them feel they have to; to resist letting your own style take over, take the direction of the client to help them create what they are aiming for; to encourage social skills, talking with the clients as we create and providing a community atmosphere. The group made some amazing work, and I'm excited to return to community groups in future projects.
My main role in the project was to be the editor and designer of the magazine, while the other group members worked on a film. I feel we collaborated excellently, we had two very different ideas - a film about memories and a magazine about art - but I managed to help the film with creative inputs such as design ideas, and the group helped me by providing their interviews and artwork for the project. I feel in creating the magazine I gained experience of working with clients, as when you are creating an interview, the person wants their words to be shown in the way they meant them and not to be edited. This meant a lot of back and forth with both Hart's Helen and the group members I interviewed, to ensure they were all completely happy with how I presented their work and how I wrote their voice.
Overall the magazine was a huge success, although I had a few issues with printing, which I plan to develop in future projects. Printing was either poor quality or wildly expensive, next time I hope to go to other UAL campuses to use different printing studios and create extra prototypes in different printing techniques. During the exhibition element of the project, I really focused on how I could consider my audience to develop the theory side of my work. I completed a range of research into exhibiting my work, thinking of exhibition space and finally deciding on creating a magazine. This was primarily because I wanted everyone's work to be included, as part of our concept that anyone could create art - this would eliminate me having to judge or exclude anyone's pieces. I wanted my audience to be an example for art students to realise that anyone can create art, and just because you have lots of money, or a fancy degree doesn't make your art any more or less meaningful. I hope this was effective through my exhibition of some amazing pieces of artwork from people with no official artistic training, and through the emotive stories, quotes and interviews we gained from Hart.
Moving forward I look forward to creating with community groups and art therapists again. I hope to develop my personal style with the aims to be recognisable when exhibiting lots of different work. Finally I hope to re-exhibit some of the work from this project with the amazing exhibition and event space Burst London, which should be returning summer 2020....
Assessment Evidence
Evidence of; a substantial amount of research to enable completion of the two project tasks.
I have completed two research blog posts which explore artist research, concept and context research, along with further research such as surveys, audience testing and interview. Big Family Press and South London Story Lab
Evidence of; development work exploring and developing your outcomes and your methods of delivering them to the public.
For the Big Family Press I conducted exploration and development here, i also tested my outcome on a similar audience, by letting my younger brother have a go at using my worksheet, before I enhanced the final design.
In this blog post I discuss the SLSL exhibition and plans to exhibit this piece further after the coronavirus pandemic, I have discussed my development work and process here https://ryanmckendrick.blogspot.com/2020/03/unit-six-process.html
Evidence of; participation in organisation & presentation of an event at Peckham Levels, where you will gift your story to the public.
This assessment evidence is shown in this blogpost, discussing my failures and successes during the SLSL exhibition.
Evidence of; any other platforms or locations where you are able to gift your story to audiences of any kind: This can be gathered up till the date of the U8 assessment in late May
Sadly due to the coronavirus pandemic my plan to re-exhibit this piece with Burst London fell through, Burst London are hopefully coming back in the summer when I will get back in touch with them.
Evidence of; ongoing written reflection on your process and learning.
This has all been collected on this blog, where I have documented: Initial project aims, project briefs and project proposals; Initial research such as artist research and research of context, this is then supported by further artist and context research to develop my practical work; analysis of my process and creative production; consideration and testing of final designs; evidence of final designs with personal, peer and tutor feedback; and conclusions and aims for future projects.
Evidence of; gathering feedback from the public and reflection upon that feedback. Consider feedback from your audience
Again this was collected in this blog post through my feedback box as part of the SLSL exhibition.
As discussed in my last blogpost my outcome for the SLSL project was a magazine which told the story of working with Hart including: interviews with the UAL artists involved along with some of their personal work for the project; interviews with Helen highlighting what Hart Club and The Great Grey do; my own collages from the project; and the work from Hart's The Great Grey.
Personal Feedback:
"I am really happy with how this piece turned out, I feel the final magazine looked professional, with high quality printing. The work from Hart was incredible, yet this meant I had some concerns about my own style being lost in the collection of different works. My role for this project was the designer and editor of the magazine, this gave me insight to working with clients, as I had to send a couple of drafts to my interviewees before they were happy with the outcomes. I feel I've massively improved in my photoshop skills for this project, but there is still work to be done on the resolution of some designs."
SOUTH LONDON STORY LAB
Our set-up for the South London Story Lab event was: a binder which contained our work from The Great Grey, a film about muscle memory and skills by my team-mates Elina and Tracey, the Working With Hart magazine and a feedback box. Because out main question for the group when we ran out art therapy sessions was "How Does Art Make You Feel?", we wanted to ask our audience the same question. This was partly to create an interactive element to our piece, and to gain feedback and insight for our project concept.
Tutor Feedback:
"The work is great, it looks fab and its really emotive, however the printing needs to be improved."
I had a lot of issues with printing when nearing the end of the project, this was primarily due to time management, as I only left myself two days for printing. Due to the issues with coronavirus I was unable to visit Chelsea to print, which is what most of my peers recommended, I would like to do this in future projects for a more professional finish.
Furthermore, after the tutor feedback I removed the white overlap from the magazine, I initially was scared to do it because of the cost of printing, but felt it looked a lot better with the edges cut.
Other people's work
This was one of my favourite pieces from the event, the artist of this project was studying a hindu place of worship, and created an amazing photobook of their investigation. I was really impressed by the printing quality and wished my own magazine had a similar quality, I found out this was done at Chelsea - where I'll be going to print next time!
Here is another one of my favourites from the exhibition. This artist's outcome was really simple yet still very effective, the comic combines comedy with fantastic character design, it's simplicity makes it a very successful piece as it allows a strong focus. I often find when creating my own projects I have a lot of ideas, media and styles within my work. During third year I plan to hone and develop my style, and the idea of simplicity which is so effective in this piece is something for me to take inspiration from!
CONCLUSION
The South London Story Lab project was a fantastic learning opportunity for me to move forward when considering my post-graduation pathway of art therapy. I had the opportunity not only to work with an art therapist, but learn more about working with vulnerable people and community groups. My main focus for the project was to consider my career pathways and gain integral experience in the field of art therapy. After my feedback from the last assessment I felt I wanted to improve my digital skills, feeling this would improve my confidence with using photoshop to both create and enhance art.
Originally when working with Hart Club we encountered a couple of hurdles. Initially the art therapist we worked with was quite protective over her group and was reluctant to us coming into the group with no clear objective for the project. We felt it was important to move forward and to gain her trust to create both a project proposal and a 'lesson plan' for our own workshop. Our main concerns were how we could approach a very sensitive group, with early diagnosis of dementia, without causing distress and without intruding on the therapeutic process. Within the group we compiled a list of subjects to avoid such as the obvious, talk about dementia and any direct questions about mental and physical health. We decided to run our group using collage as we felt this would also allow for the group to feel less vulnerable as they may not feel comfortable putting their own work into the world.
A requirement for the group was also to create consent forms before we were to do anything with their work, luckily we ended up getting on really well with the group and everyone was very excited by the possibility their artwork could be shown at an exhibition.
During the sessions I began to get a real feel of the key aims of group-art therapy; to encourage the clients to produce art, but not to make them feel they have to; to resist letting your own style take over, take the direction of the client to help them create what they are aiming for; to encourage social skills, talking with the clients as we create and providing a community atmosphere. The group made some amazing work, and I'm excited to return to community groups in future projects.
My main role in the project was to be the editor and designer of the magazine, while the other group members worked on a film. I feel we collaborated excellently, we had two very different ideas - a film about memories and a magazine about art - but I managed to help the film with creative inputs such as design ideas, and the group helped me by providing their interviews and artwork for the project. I feel in creating the magazine I gained experience of working with clients, as when you are creating an interview, the person wants their words to be shown in the way they meant them and not to be edited. This meant a lot of back and forth with both Hart's Helen and the group members I interviewed, to ensure they were all completely happy with how I presented their work and how I wrote their voice.
Overall the magazine was a huge success, although I had a few issues with printing, which I plan to develop in future projects. Printing was either poor quality or wildly expensive, next time I hope to go to other UAL campuses to use different printing studios and create extra prototypes in different printing techniques. During the exhibition element of the project, I really focused on how I could consider my audience to develop the theory side of my work. I completed a range of research into exhibiting my work, thinking of exhibition space and finally deciding on creating a magazine. This was primarily because I wanted everyone's work to be included, as part of our concept that anyone could create art - this would eliminate me having to judge or exclude anyone's pieces. I wanted my audience to be an example for art students to realise that anyone can create art, and just because you have lots of money, or a fancy degree doesn't make your art any more or less meaningful. I hope this was effective through my exhibition of some amazing pieces of artwork from people with no official artistic training, and through the emotive stories, quotes and interviews we gained from Hart.
Moving forward I look forward to creating with community groups and art therapists again. I hope to develop my personal style with the aims to be recognisable when exhibiting lots of different work. Finally I hope to re-exhibit some of the work from this project with the amazing exhibition and event space Burst London, which should be returning summer 2020....
Assessment Evidence
Evidence of; a substantial amount of research to enable completion of the two project tasks.
I have completed two research blog posts which explore artist research, concept and context research, along with further research such as surveys, audience testing and interview. Big Family Press and South London Story Lab
Evidence of; development work exploring and developing your outcomes and your methods of delivering them to the public.
For the Big Family Press I conducted exploration and development here, i also tested my outcome on a similar audience, by letting my younger brother have a go at using my worksheet, before I enhanced the final design.
In this blog post I discuss the SLSL exhibition and plans to exhibit this piece further after the coronavirus pandemic, I have discussed my development work and process here https://ryanmckendrick.blogspot.com/2020/03/unit-six-process.html
Evidence of; participation in organisation & presentation of an event at Peckham Levels, where you will gift your story to the public.
This assessment evidence is shown in this blogpost, discussing my failures and successes during the SLSL exhibition.
Evidence of; any other platforms or locations where you are able to gift your story to audiences of any kind: This can be gathered up till the date of the U8 assessment in late May
Sadly due to the coronavirus pandemic my plan to re-exhibit this piece with Burst London fell through, Burst London are hopefully coming back in the summer when I will get back in touch with them.
Evidence of; ongoing written reflection on your process and learning.
This has all been collected on this blog, where I have documented: Initial project aims, project briefs and project proposals; Initial research such as artist research and research of context, this is then supported by further artist and context research to develop my practical work; analysis of my process and creative production; consideration and testing of final designs; evidence of final designs with personal, peer and tutor feedback; and conclusions and aims for future projects.
Evidence of; gathering feedback from the public and reflection upon that feedback. Consider feedback from your audience
Again this was collected in this blog post through my feedback box as part of the SLSL exhibition.
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