Cross Pathway Project.

"Elephants," Dan, thinking out his ideas with his image book.

Starting 26th Oct lecture B all pathways meeting for briefing on new collaboration project. A completely new approach to our work to enhance our understanding of other disciplines and

aid our ability to communicate and work in social groups.

During the lecture we were introduced to various companies and artists working within the area of collaboration where artists and designers are working together mainly via the Internet to spontaneously respond in an interactive way to solve problems and be creative.

This is obviously a new and exciting area of development within the creative industries brought about by the Internets offer of endless opportunities and limitless combinations for creatives.

For the purpose of this exercise we have been split into groups of four (cross pathway teams).

My group consists of Myself (graphic design), Donella Machin (surface design), Daniel Pike (moving image) and Jane Harrison (illustration). Our group name is "Elephants"

We watched several short films and videos to display the kind of work that is being produced by designers through collaborative communication. Some examples were Andy Martin, Containerplus.com and a short film by Tahl Rosner called in B flat.

Our brief is: DOOR(WAY).

Having been given a door per group we have 4 weeks to

work together to produce a piece of work/display through

exploring the endless possibilities through collaboration.

Today was our first meeting and we decided that we would

discuss a few ideas that we each have to get our minds a little

clearer so we can plan ahead on how we will approach the problem.

We have settled in well as a group and realize the importance

of working together to solve the problem not allowing our egos

to get in the way. So off we

Elephants in brain storming mode.

go brainstorming the possibilities we have and encouraging

each other to come up we different ideas. We know the importance

at this stage that we do not get too focused on any particular

idea as its early days and we need to explore as much as possible.

During our meeting we decided it would be best to annotate our

study by writing and photographing our progress. Here are some

photos from todays brain storm session.

Door/way in RandD as ideas come under the spot light.

We appreciate the importance of researching our ideas so we

have agreed that the best way forward is for us to research

individually the ideas that we feel are our best before we meet

again on friday and by the end of the morning period we intend

on having come to a decision on what is the best idea to move

forward the project with.

As we have a mentor and tutor meeting in the afternoon

we are time conscious about what we can allocate to our

research and development part of the project.

We intend on being in a position to be ready to start finalizing

the research over the weekend as we will be ready to

move the project into a "live idea" mode by Monday morning.

Tutor meeting with Ian Parkin.

This was our first tutor meeting in which we could engage

with a tutor explaining our ideas and how we felt we were

developing. We showed Ian the ideas generation that we had

collaborated on and how we had progressed to deciding on

an "idea" for our project.

This example from l'Archive has a particular meaning for us.

We showed our influences and in particular

the work of the french installation artist, Christian Baltanski.

Ian reflected with us and felt that the idea we had decided on

was interesting and possible. Also he commented that we

were looking at the right kind of work that could advance our idea.

This was a positive evaluation of our progress and we felt confident

that we had chose correctly.

I like this image i found in Grafik magazine

Nov 2009. The installation is named 'IQ" relating to a

poster campaign against radioactive contamination, part

of the exhibition Tasse Oder Unter Tasse, Von Der Heydt

Museum, Wuppertal, 1994. When you look close there is a

picture of a wild life scene within the room and a door.

Friday 30th October 1st Mentor meeting.

Minutes of the meeting:

Our 1st Mentor meeting with Chris took place today in

the library at 2.30pm. We sent Janes apologies as she

is not present due to illness. Hopefully she will be back

with us on Monday.

Firstly we discussed incoming information. What each

of us had been researching, and explained the progress

we had made with our ideas generation. We are on track

with our schedule and have come to an agreement as to

which idea we are to take forward. We discussed our analysis

considering the way we had changed our direction due

to the fact that we stuck at our brain storming for the

period we allocated.

It was explained to Chris what our agenda would be for

the following week and what tasks each of us would perform.

Dan and i would be researching sound and looking at

the photography that would be included in our final piece.

Donella and Jane are to be experimenting with screen printing

and textiles.

On Tuesday we will be pursuing our idea in the foundation

area with John Patterson. In the afternoon we will have

a tutor meeting with Rick from moving image to get a

different perspective on our idea.

Chris explained to us exactly how we should present our

agenda meeting next time and there is much room for

improvement. We aim to have a much more formal and

deconstructed meeting for our next meeting on friday.

Monday Nov 2nd.

As we decided on friday we split into groups with Jane

and Donella spending time experimenting with material

and various ways of screen printing on to them. I took

pictures of each of us and here are the examples of what

we achieved.

Some experimental screen printed printed examples

and examples of experimental photography. This is all

documented in a our research file.

Tuesday Nov 3rd

The team met in the 3d department at 10.30 with John

Patterson to discuss our ideas and for his input into

the possibilities of developing our ideas. During this

discussion it became aparent that although our carousel

idea was good, time and technical issues were against us.

This was not to dissappointing as we still have plenty

to go with. We spent the morning brain storming the

ideas discussed with john and i believe that when the

room is allocated to us can be looked at we can have a

much clearer view.

We agreed to come in on our self study day to keep

pace as three of us will be in New York next week.

We have produced some photographic work that i

have included the following images of.

First stage low key/contrast photographs.

Stage 2 high contrast graytones

These images are now on A2 acetate and

ready to be screen printed.

Thursday nov 5th

Today is a self study day and we decided

to meet on campus to finalize our idea

and produce the screens from which we

will print our first group of images.

We have agreed that it would be appropriate

to use glow in the dark acrilic to create

the atmosphere that we require for our

collaboration piece. We are also working

on the various possibilities of the sound we

which to incorporate and feel that the

project is moving in the right direction.

We need to carry out various tests to

establish its effectiveness and suitability.

Some examples of image experiments.

Short Lecture: John Wood & Paul Harrison.

Ian showed a short film by the for named

performance artists to aid our creative juices.

It showed various sketches by the two men.

Board, 1993.

Moving around a white room using a piece of

white board making into various forms eg

a see-saw, door, window pane and slide

Boat, 1995.

A large side on letter D, with the artists inside

moving it until it turns to slam onto the

flat part of the letter.

Headstand, 1995.

A wardrobe cut in half with one of the artists inside

manouvered over into a headstand.

Device, 1996.

Humorous take on walking upstairs. The stairs

being on the feet.

October 97, 1997.

A bucket suspended by twisted string that when realised

lowers the bucket gradually to the ground.

An interesting and light hearted look at some

of the most normal and bizzare.