The interim show at the end of term 3 was an interesting learning experience, 50% of which came from the parallel exposure to the second years final show which they setup in parallel. This was an opportunity to help and discuss their views about the course in the 2nd year. Overall I felt relatively unprepared to present work in the interim show, especially with the constraints of the space available. This was partly due to the fact that the studio work to date had been mentally filed under experimental and I hadn’t spent time articulating what work to be presented might look like, and how that might be done under varying constraints (space, lighting sound etc). Consequently I went through several iterations including a few failed concepts based on transmission and transistor radios. The final result was a development of the video photogram work, but interestingly (in retrospect) contained a kind of gestural lanaguage absent from the early work. There was also a sound track which drew on previous work. Overall I was happy with the work as far as it went but not so impressed by the actual installation – it would have worked better in a large darker space.
I drew a number of lessons from this experience; (i) the need for a range of work that is established and thought through in its final form to some extent (ii) the idea of the installation as a set of components that can be reconfigured (improvised) according to the needs of each space, their inter-relations changing (iii) the need to distinguish between experimental notebook-like activity and work directed towards an endpoint (iv) there is not a lot of time in year two to prepare for the final show – think about it from now onwards!
Odradek's Journey 