Matthew Davis APME 301 Creative Production in a Local context Evaluation. Heartlands was the client, and as such the work that I created I wanted to be positive. I wanted to paint Heartlands as a beautiful positive place. A place and a space for the community to get involved. My exhibition promoted Heartlands primarily with its “green” ethos, illustrating a beautiful “green” space. The exhibition was planned collectively in lectures with the students that were present on the said days. We decided firstly on what to call it, initially there were discussions about Cornish words, we were discussing regeneration, under, over, mining etc. We finally decided upon Wheal as it is one of the few Cornish words that is still used and recognised today. It added an authentic Cornish touch along with the obviousness of the mining connotation, and so the exhibition was to be called Wheal. Upon the naming we collectively created a poster, ensuring all relevant details were included. Names of students, name of course, logos of Truro college, and Heartlands. Address and contact detail of Heartlands, the date and location of the exhibition, and one sentence explaining what was on display. The poster was checked several times, and distributed through social network sites for our initial criticism before it went live and was distributed to the general public. The next task was a catalogue. This was completed collectively, we decided how we wanted it to look. This was as an A5 booklet with 2-4pages per person. We used a rigid template to create our pages so they were uniform, and looked professional. The leaflets displayed a few images from our exhibited work, along with some text explaining our ideas and ambitions. Once our individual pages had been completed we emailed them to our lecturer to compile the catalogue. The catalogue was created in Adobe Indesign-a program I had never used until this task. Once drafts had been emailed for criticism and consideration, and we were all happy the catalogue went to press. The next step was to create a website for the exhibition. The website would have all the information from the leaflet and catalogue along with links to our own websites. We created an online catalogue using the website Issuu (a website enabling you to publish PDF files.)The website http://whealheartlands.wordpress.com/ was created on wordpress and was a crisp clean site to point people in the direction of individual artists. The exhibition was publicised by Heartlands and Truro college. I created my own poster for the exhibition that I distributed at my work, and in some local businesses that enabled me. My poster was a black and white design, simple in design, but the black and white I chose deliberately as it added a retro edge, and with “wheal” being considered from an old language, I thought it was a good concept. The poster was designed in photoshop using Heartlands and Truro College’s logo. I distributed leaflets, posters and catalogues at my work place, along with saturation on social networking sites, and links and dedicated pages on my websites. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, Tumblr, Instagram. I saturated everything I could to draw attention to our Exhibition. With the title of my works as "Regeneration through Regeneration", I wanted to display something resembling this. I created, in keeping with my ethos, a "bean tin" projector. One
Matthew Davis APME 301 Creative Production in a Local context Evaluation. end used a mini projector, slide-showing a selection of my pictures, and the other end was a round hooded viewer. The images were projected onto a small round linen screen. This was using “regenerated tins”, just like my “regenerated camera”. I liked the simplistic exhibit, within an innovative viewer. People that took the time to look at it enjoyed the viewer and its innovation. To accompany my projection I displayed my bound exhibition book. This was placed on a table beside my other exhibit, on a stand. The book displayed all the images, but also had an introduction at the front. Once the public read this, they were more in tune with what I was trying to achieve,and create. Once the understanding was grasped the audience appeared to received my work positively. My exhibition was incredibly difficult to manufacture, after initial plans, and concepts (all illustrated within my blog mtdimages.blogspot.com) the actuality of creating it became the task. This task could not be completed until I had sourced a projector. The projector arrived the week of the exhibition, so better late than never I was able to secure it to the bean tin and create the viewer. My preparation and time planning could of been improved, thus improving the quality and the experience to the audience. This could of been achieved by sourcing a projector sooner, resulting in an earlier manufacture of the viewer, and thus I could of spent longer troubleshooting, and improving it. As the viewer was created within a tight time frame I did encounter a couple of problems. The first being the controlling of the projector. I installed the projector internally, this meant there was less likelihood that the projector would get stolen, and less chance that people could fiddle with the controls, and change the operation of the projector. The downside to this concealment was that the projector had no auto play function, and therefore to start a slideshow meant pressing 6 buttons in sequence. The only way around this was to slice the viewer in two, set the projector up, and seal it up Again. This was far from ideal. This created a problem in that I could not simply walk away from the exhibition and let it run its course. So after much deliberation I decided to remove the viewer after the private view. This was a little upsetting, but due to my bad time management I had no option. This meant exhibit goers could merely look at my book, there was no extra exhibit displayed (as such) for them to see. To ensure the private view, and indeed the whole exhibit was safe and secure, I took a couple of precautions. To answer a hanging power chord ,I carefully taped the lead to the floor, and to the base of the table, this meant the lead was not a hazard. I was aware children may well accompany their parents whilst they observe our exhibition, and children always feel and touch, and so I carefully sanded every angle on the bean tin projector. This created a smooth, safe, un-sharp object that was unlikely to cause harm. Looking at the comments in the comments book (snapshot on my blog) it is clear that people enjoyed the exhibition and the variety of work, and the innovation of the various media. In reflection of my work and exhibits and if I was to redisplay this work, I would of made something that would allow for a bigger display. I think my work was too small, and perhaps missed by some people. The viewer I made was heavily flawed. 1) The controls to the projector were concealed and encased within the viewer-to get at the controls required
Matthew Davis APME 301 Creative Production in a Local context Evaluation. slicing it in half, and then taping it back up. 2) stability of the viewer was not great. The tin was too soft to deal with the screws I put through it to connect it with the tripod the viewer was supported on. 3) Using a glue-gun to secure the linen left several spider web trails that were a pain, and encroached on the projected images. Superglue would of been a better glue to use for the task. 4) I would display the camera, or at the very least the pinhole shutter, this would of added another dimension to my exhibition. In reflection of the exhibition as a whole, I would of liked to capture people's thoughts, and comments on my own work specifically. The whole exhibition had a comments book, however this is relatively vague, and not focused towards my work specifically. I was pleased with my viewer despite its drawbacks, and its alternative approach to displaying the work. On the dismantling of the exhibition, we had a reflective session, and we spoke frankly about our overall views and feelings of how the exhibition went.(MP3 recording of this is on my blog) The overall consensus was that the footfall was much lower than anticipated, and although we think that this is partly due to Heartlands not promoting the exhibition as fully as they could of, we all agreed that the exhibition space, and the access to it was limited. Occasionally the doors were locked, and some people could not see the stairs to the mezzanine level, and so simply turned around and went. We also discussed that photography and film making are two different medias, and sometimes conglomerating them can cause issues in the viewing of them, that is if the viewing methods have not been fully considered. The consumption of media is different, and as art advisor Francis Hodgson theorises in his essay ‘Talking with Jorg’(25th Feb 2013) “Because the surface (of most, of the “standard” one…) is slippery, the eye tends to skid off it....Phrase this another way, and photography is almost unique in having immediacy built in.” This directly conflicts with the idea of film, of a moving image that has a chronological structure. We decided that the film screening on a loop was not a very good idea. The loop was in excess of 40 minutes, and this is too long for a person to sit in an exhibition space. We thought that for next time we would have a schedule, and a specific viewing timetable, so at the right time people can come and see the video/film that they are interested in. W ! We also spoke about the area, and the demographic. Pool/Camborne was considered below the poverty line on a European level, and as such is not populated generally with people who are involved and interested in art, and exhibitions. This is in contrast to areas like St.Ives where art is very much at the forefront of their agenda. We also discussed Heartlands itself, and that it is a new space, and it is still finding its feet. The Heartlands hasn't really established itself (yet) as a cultured space. Although it is still in development, the regeneration hasn't happened yet, and thus the creative/expressive sector of society are not on Heartlands doorstep, and therefore wont visit-yet. I feel the overall exhibition responded to Heartlands in a positive way, illustrating it in various formats, and touching on many different issues. The exhibition looked incredible, to see everyones interpretations of Heartlands was inspiring. People commenting on the metal that was removed from the place, peoples comments on the future of the space, its location, its role-It was quite incredible. The works exhibited very much reflected on the issues surrounding Heartlands.The client seemed impressed with the work overall, however very little feedback was received from them. A couple of the employees did say whilst we were there that it looked great.
Matthew Davis APME 301 Creative Production in a Local context Evaluation.