PLANNING:
This collaborative project started with us forming several small groups to decide the theme, the form it would take, funding and its location.
I was in a team with Catherine and Emily and our role was to discuss what kind of exhibition it would be. From the start we all decided we wanted the exhibition to be an installation rather than a traditional sit down viewing. Catherine, Emily and I discussed what the installation could look like but we decided to go with my idea of making a peep hole installation where every animator has their own peep hole where they'd show their animations. I came up with this idea because I thought that it would allow for everyone's very different ways of working to be viewed and experienced as one, as well as bringing about a way of viewing animation in an exhibition. We also agreed that everyone should contribute a piece of animation to the exterior of the boxes and overall 'exterior' installation of the room, but this would of course depend on the theme we'd all agree on.
Some sketches used to illustrate my idea:
Each group pitched their brainstormed ideas and the peep hole installation idea was approved by the rest of the group. We talked about possible venues, possible themes and ways we could fundraise but nothing was finalised at this stage. We were then put into new groups responsible for either finding a location, fundraising or other technical responsibilities.
LOCATION
Catherine Shaw, Alina Brust, Emily Harrison, Faye Jolly, Sam Anderson and I were in charge of the location scouting.
A few people went to look at locations but at the time they were closed. Eventually Catherine, Alina, Emily, Faye and I went to Summerhall to look at some of the venues they had. The first we saw was good but slightly too big and had a lot of windows which we were thinking would have to be covered in some way. The second venue however was perfect for our project, the 'old lab' was a theatre space with a high ceiling and the possibility to use controlled lighting as a theatre space would have, allowing us to create a controlled theatrical space for our installation. The space was flat at the time but later we found out it had a set of stairs that would cost a lot to remove but we managed worked around that. Sam amazingly dealt with the many emails back and forth with summer hall to get quotes, information and the regulations we'd have to go by.
Houses Idea:
After the summer hall viewing, Emily and I were talking about what could bring all boxes together in the external installation, I was suggesting the boxes could be bolders or environmental elements in a natural exterior environment and then Emily had the amazing idea of making each person's box a house so that everyone could show some personality on the interior and exterior and yet allow the installation to be unified. I ran with her idea and went on to think about making the installation a form of village with streets that directed the viewer around the installation.
some of my sketches of visualising the idea:
plan of pitch to the rest of the class
When Emily Gisela and I pitched the Idea to the rest of the class everyone seemed very excited about the project. I asked people to think about what they wanted their house to look like, what they were maybe going to put in it and the materials they'd use. James came up with the name 'Neighboroughood watch' which instantly stuck with the whole installation.
The next time we would meet, Catherine wanted everyone to have the size of the houses so that we could make a digital model of the space to be able to design the viewers experience.
MY HOUSE:
My initial idea for this installation was to try to recreate the parculiar environment of a Sauna. As I was investigating swimming centres for my experimental animation course I thought that I could include it and develop it further for the exhibition. I find Sauna's quite interesting spaces because it is so rare that people decide to strip their clothes and sit in a very small hot wooden room where speaking is frowned upon and time slows down, and yet people come out of the experience more relaxed than when they went it. The dynamic between people in the sauna is also odd but the experience of being in the extreme hot environment has its contradictions itself. The body relaxes, muscles become less tense and the pours of the body open up which is relaxing but there are clear stressors; as breathing becomes more difficult and forced, the body becomes heavy and as you lose water content it becomes dangerous to stay in the there too long.
So my idea was to film people in a sauna (live action, green screened) and animate the footage so that as you watch these people in the sauna you feel you are in there with them and in real time they are ever so slightly melting, so that once you've been watching the footage for a minute or so you notice something off has happened but it might be difficult to pin point what it was. I want the viewer to feel the very slowly growing anxiety of the experience but also leave it feeling like they've focused on something effortlessly and meditated.
working out what materials and equipment to use with Mike:
NEW IDEA:
I decided to change my idea for the installation because I decided to use the melting animation technique for my representation documentary instead and I wouldn't have time to do an extra animation for the installation alone. I also saw a fine art exhibition which inspired some new ideas for my pool animations and I thought that if I was showing my experimental animation project in the exhibition it would allow me to further these ideas.
THE LOOK OF THE INSTALLATION:
the class was divided when it came to what we all wanted the installation to look like. Half of us wanted all the houses to be simple and black (to unify the installation), and others wanted to make their houses more personal on the exterior by painting and decorating them.
After discussing this with the class we decided to compromise and have a colour palette that everyone would go by. We decided the colours would be neutral and dark so we went with black, slate and brown as well as an individual personal colour that would show the houses personality and unify them at the same time.
As I was going to be showing my experimental animation of swimming pools I was going to choose light blue.
Fundraising.
I was not in the group organising the fundraising but I helped Gisela make the poster for the event, while she organised a craft fair in The Wee Red Bar at ECA. Gisela got in touch with the owner and arranged a date we could use the space from 9 a.m to 5 p.m for no charge and she was the one in communication with the owner about all the equipment and tables we needed. The craft fair was Gisela's idea but everyone added ideas of what they could sell at it. Gisela and I decided to sell some of our spare Linoprints and screen prints from personal projects, but we also spent a day in the print room making new prints to sell specifically at the craft fair. Others had a bakesale, a badge making station and other crafty things.
Money disagreement:
We'd agreed that all the money would go to the exhibition no question.
The turnout was quite satisfactory, Gisela and I counted, on the day that we made around 120 pounds but none of us made any receipts of the sales, because it would go to the common charitable goal of "the exhibition". Overall we made 250 pounds out together?
At the time we were aware of the Corona virus situation but didn't know how it would affect our exhibition or if it would affect it at all, so we went along with the thought that the money would still be going to some form of exhibition. No one asked Gisela and I what we wanted to do with the money we made from our prints if the exhibition didn't happen. We both obviously made quite a big chunk of the money overall and the prints we were selling were pieces of work we were proud of, and in my case some were 'limited edition' and couldn't be made again (screen prints). So obviously as the exhibition didn't happen we expected the money to either go to 4th years exhibition or be divided up approximately (because no receipts) of how much each person made.
James and others in the group however expected the money to be divided equally amongst everyone who participated to pay for expenses and such meaning Gisela and I would be at an obvious loss.
We brought up this problem to the group and I made the most accurate account of all the prints I sold, and a few of Gisela's, so that we could get a minimum of the money we made:
however the group voted to keep the money as 'communal pot' which works in the favour of those who didn't make any money and puts those who did, at a considerable loss.
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