In-class writing exercise

How does your choice of material conceptually relate to your plans for your finished project?

Sand. I choose sand to help reflect my idea of home, what reminds me of my home, and what makes it unique.

Can you refine or revise your decision about materials to help clarify your project to your viewer?

If anything I need something more to help clarify my concept to the viewer. (which ended up being a map, artifact, and timeline)

Do you have a title for the project? If so, why did you choose this title? If not, what could it be and why?

Off the top of my head, “home.” or “welcome home.” I feel like that could also be too blunt/self-explanatory. I don’t usually title pieces.

Do you have a clear idea of how the viewer will see your final work? explain your plan, and elaborate on it to make a stronger idea for the final install.

If I do an image with my sand block I’ll probably hang the image on a wall with the block on a pedal stool infront of it. If it’s two objects I’ll probably place them next to each other.

Are there parts of your projects that feel unclear? If so, list them below so you can clearly articulate what you are struggling with. Write one short plan of action you can take to remedy the issue.

What to do as a companion piece for my project. Ideas so far include: photos, objects, timeline or a map.

Post Written Response [project2]

The strengths mentioned in my piece included:

- the resolution of the display

- Using colored tacks to bring everything together.

- the child-like map, the trees.

The weakness included:

- Map/grid need to be cohesive size

- Poor photo quality.

- Photos on white paper doesn’t blend well with the other material.

- put blank photo under 2011.

- Change photos and years to make them the same size or include the years on top of the photos.

- Overall composition and craft still need some improvement.

The suggestions I plan to implement are to change the size of the grid to match it up with the map, this also bothered me. I also plan on changing the photos to blend better with the rest of the piece and fix the quality issues. 

What I learned from this project was ways to resolve issues when you have multiple pieces that you use to create a whole, trying to make them all seem equally important. Also trying to deal with presenting things in a cohesive order. Learning how to make things with resin. 

I don’t plan on continuing this work as a whole. I will hopefully work with parts of it in the future though. I enjoyed the outcome of working with resin. I will probably continue with this concept on some level. 

Post Written Response [project1]

The strengths in my piece included good use of font, along with the use of humor/juxtaposition. Weakness in my piece was the white “what will you be?” box, the wheel was too subtle/hidden, poor craft, distracting color. Suggestions of improving my work were to get rid of the white box but to still make the text stand out in some way. Also to possibly use an arrow to point out the wheel so it is more noticeable. There was also a consensus that the project should be redone and that I either go all out including lights and sound or that I simplify it way down. I agree with the feed back I received and I would like to redo it. If I did redo it I would like to go all out, but due to lack of funds and knowledge, if I do redo it I will need to do a simplified version. I also agree with the fact that the wheel was a little hidden and it would be nice to add something to make it stand out.

Although all the processes I used in this project might be things that are commonly used by other people they were all new processes for me. I have never used spray paint, xerox transfers, or done anything based completely off of text. I also haven’t had to worry about the mechanics of a project before. Building something like this seems simple, but once I started on it I learned differently. I learned a lot of new things in doing this project and I’m glad I tried it. I’m not sure if I’ll continue working in this manner. I feel like all my work touches on the concept of identity. I don’t think that I will be doing things based off text so much. I would still like to explore working with new materials and processes.