Reflections - Final Evaluation

The only way to start this evaluation is to say that Reflections has had a huge impact on the manner in which I looked at Art. I've got to confess that I wasn't keen on the whole idea of art and I didn't even want to understand it.  But, having to research on other artist's work to get inspiration, has actually done much more than that. I had the opportunity to get to know magnificent artists such as, Issac Julien whose last film installation (Playtime) I've seen.  Not to mention the pioneer Nam June Paik; the contemporary Bill Viola; the funny collages from Hannah Hock; Vito Acconci whose idea of spreading art by doing it in public places I'm very keen. Even the artists which I didn't enjoy - either because I didn't understand they work or simply because I don't like their pieces in terms of aesthetics - helped by making me aware of what I don't want to produce (at least not at the moment).  *important to mention that Time Art was equally important on such aspects above cited. 

• Photography Project

Photography has always being a frustration for me and this is one of the reasons why I've tried to make collage pieces instead; as a result, I now have one more technique to be frustrated with. 
After that, I decided to keep my theme - The time when I use to live in London - but to change the approach. 

The final result wasn't as good as I planned; I'm actually happy with the images, the problem is the wrong dimension in which they were printed. As I've said before, photography has never been my strongest skill and to be honest, I'm really fine with that. Not being a great photographer made me wanted to change my images digitally, which I believe worked well. In addition, I decided to use audio to portray the places represented in the pictures. I believe that would help the audience to get the feeling of such places. 

Furthermore, I reckon that the images which were digitally manipulated (Dalston, Voho and Fulham) were stronger than the others. This makes me thing about, trying more of that in the future. 

The way the work was presented, in my opinion, was the weakest aspect of my work. Although it was my idea to have the Cds hanged, I could have done a better work. I didn't want the Cds to be lined  because I though the memories are not precise neither rigid. But having the Cds hanged by black strings  and not having them lined up might have given the audience an idea of a poorly presented work. 

• Film Project

My main role, in this project, consisted in creating and assembling the sound track for the film. Normally, students tend not to like being responsible for the sound of a film; however, on this project, I saw a very good opportunity to apply the skill and knowledge acquired on Experimental Sound module as well as being able to be creative. 

The final version of the film is ok. I would be lying if I said that there were nothing to be improved in the film. In terms of the narrative I reckon it would be more engaging, for the audience, if some scenes were edited shorter. Moreover, the soundtrack doesn't keep the same quality throughout the film and it is clear that some parts were better produced than others. The ending scene is a very good example, as it lacks creativity and it's poorly assembled, sound-wise. The dream scene, on the other hand, it was done on a creative way and using not-so-simple skills. Moreover, the text used on the scenes hasn't add much to the film in terms of information; the choice of fonts was also bad.

The worst enemy in this project was the time management. However, it is important to say that trying to learn new techniques, researching and filming it not a very easy task.