Final Outcome

Final Video 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CqHHZId0gE&feature=youtu.be

Health and Saftey

How I ensured I implemented the issues of health and safety through out the various processes I used in art work;

Lighting

When working with perfections lighting, I was aware of hot these light could become. Before turning on the light I checked the area around for glass or plastic, which could create a magifing glass and lead to a fire. I also only had the light on for appropriate amounts of time. Any changes I had to turn it off I did so that it did not get too hot or over heat. I also displayed signs signifying that the lights will get very hot so please do not touch.

Electrical Equipment

While using electrical equipment, before turning it one, I checked all around so that I was not close to water and that there was no liquids that could be split on them. I also turned off all electrical equipment when I was not suing in it at the mains plug, this was so that it was less dangerous and stopped the equipment from over heating. I also made sure that all the wires were taped to the floor and there was clear signage telling people to mind there step, so that no tripped over. I made sure the signs were clear for everyone to see. 

Because I followed the processes and precautions there was no accidents in any of my work, leading my work to be successful 

Evaluation

The theme I was intending to explore is social interaction; I found this area extremely interesting after spending a week in New York. In New York I noticed a lack of social interaction in places known to represent the buzz of New York such as Times Square. This contrasted dramatically to other places like Harlem which had everyone trying to interact socially with us. This led me to want to develop my ideas around this area. I intended to break down barriers between people and create more social interaction. I looked at a lot of different artist and movements to try and inspire me to create an outcome. After seeing some of JR’s work in New York, I was interested in his work and wanted to find out more. I found out JR’s intentions where for world peace by breaking down barriers between people. This message was something I tried to carry across into my work. I hope that by giving people an environment to interact in and create something such as a ‘happening’ for people to talk about would lead to the breaking down of barriers and more social interaction.

Another key artist I was looking at was Yoko Ono; her work interested me mainly from her strong feminist messages. However I was also excited about was her performance art, this lead me to want to create a performance piece as my final outcome. I also wanted to do it over a long set amount of time, I was after looking at Art/Life where two artist tied themselves together for an inter year. It would of been impossible to do it for such a long time. However I still wanted for my interactive art to be created over significant amount of time to make a similar point as them and try to blur the lines between art and life. On from this I found an interest in Gillian Wearings work, as she intends to draw out things about people, which they would not naturally disclose. I think this idea is very exciting and that is why I decided to ask people to tie their wishes on a tree. Once the participants have tied their wish on the tree it then becomes anonymous, I think this lead people to be more open with their wishes. After my event, I then asked people to write another wish in tutor time, this gave them time to reflect more on what they were wishing for and make the wish more meaningful and even more anonymous. Another inspiration for the development of my ideas came when I looked at the idea of a ‘happening’. I wanted to create something with a buzz around it and my research into this type of even was a starting point. I intended to build this up through various different marketing strategies, like Gillian Wearing I wanted to create little tiny invitations, which not many people would see, alongside bold posters and personal invitations. I also looked at Grant Kester's concept of challenging the conventional aesthetics. By suggesting that aesthetics is more than an outcome it is a process really interested me. Particularly the dialogue and interaction between viewer and artistic creator becoming intertwined in the creation of an outcome. I think this is extremely linked to the concept behind my work. The breaking down of barriers in a social setting lead my intentions towards my final outcome being more about the concept and emotion than the physical piece of work.  This is why I thought that the planning, preparation and staging of my event was extremely important as it was that which would facilitate the creation of dialogue between people.  The ‘happening’ in particular had to be something bold, innovative and different in which people would hopefully talk about afterwards.

Through out all my artist responses, I tired various ways to break down barriers and invite  people to start talking and to blur the lines between myself the artist and the participators. I think all these prossesses helped me deveolp and think of ways in which I could try to break down barriers between myself and people in easy and accessible ways. This project has allowed me to explore themes wider than conventional athletics and I have strongly developed my skills creating a performance art piece; this is something that I intend to explore further through out my study of art. The most challenging aspect of this type of process however, is that it is considerably much harder to document the stages and development. Therefore if I were doing this again, I would try and record conversations between myself and people in addition to people’s conversations between them as this is what it is.

The key message was conveyed finally by the happening event which allowed people an opportunity to interact and an environment which they could talk about and interact with. The main challenge I faced was the concern that my happening would only be successful if people came and supported it. Due to my large amount of marketing and word of mouth a range and large number of people came and took part. After my event, I had people talking to me about my happening and I heard people talking about it which really demonstrated that I had started to achieve my goal. Again the challenges was trying to document these conversations, as these are evidence of the breaking down of barriers. I am happy with my outcome, as I believe I created a form of social interaction effectively. If I had the chance to develop my work further I would hope I had more facilities to document the event in different ways such as, filming my happening from a variety of angles and perspectives. However working from what I had the video in which I created does capture the event successfully.While believing the event was an outcome in its self. I decide to develop a video from the event to support and document my final piece. I created the video for various reasons. I wanted to draw out the emotion which I felt the physical piece created. Also the video allowed people to see the happening as a whole, allowing myself and other to reflect on the piece. 

In the video I used serious different film techniques to try and make the film as effective and emotionally provoking as possible. wants looking at the original footage, there was black space around the edges. I did not like this framing of the footage there for I decide to have the film as a three was split screen. This was very effective as it allowed there to be multiple images, wishes, text and footage on at the same time. this technique was useful as it also lead the film to not being very long however still effective in creating emotion. I deiced as so many of the wishes were so interesting that it would in text to have some of the wishes appearing on the screen, this allowed views to what other people had wished. As well as celebrating the huge variation in the things people wished for. On from this I began to thing about what sound I would like to support my footage. As when the participants were taking part in the happening I had various different people saying wishes, I though it would be interesting to record all the wishes participants added to my tree at the happening and after. Originally I simple played my voice reading out the wishes one after another, however this did not create any build up. Therefore I decide to overlay my voice to create a sense of tension. This lead the film to seem more like it have a narrative therefore lead to the creation of emotion and tension. However all though the sound of the wishes was effective it was not strong drawing out emotion in which I intend this lead me to think about music to support the piece. After watching various different short films which provoked strong emotion and found a strongly supporting sound track which aliened this the narrative the voice over was creating. I think the sound track is extremely effective in create an emotional response from the views. I just of various different film and editing techniques also support this. I change between colour and black and white, keeps the view ingadjed in the video. Also the editing of the images on the wishes makes the seem delicate and the star-like. All of this factor work together in my video to which would further break down barriers and to create an emotional response from the audience. The video also allows participants in the original happening to see the scale of the event and how it all came together in the end. 

Over all I believe my outcome of the happening was successful and it allowed people as say in which to interact therefore leading to social interaction. Also due to the amount of people who came and supported the event largely added to the success of it. However the video outcomes is also successful in creating an emotional response and allowing participants to see the coming together of the happening, as well as seeing it as a whole.

I have found it challenging to think about how I wanted to present my final piece. Two different ways: 
First way:
I wanted to present the video in a small space in darkness with a small screen and headphones to listen to it. I chose to present it this way because I think it reflects the interment of the piece and would give people a really chance to reflect on what the video is about. Next to the screen I would place a small box, with wish tags around it so that people could write more wishes and post them in the box. 

Second Way: 
I would want to present my work on a big screen from a distance with the wishing chair inbertween the projection and the screen so that it would create a slight shadow on to the screen, then I would have a table with wish tags on and invite people to write and tie their wishes on to the tree again. This would strongly link to Rafael lozano-hemmer who presenters his work through projection. This would also lead to further interaction between people. 

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Lozan-Hemmer explores architecture, technological theater and performance and is know as an electronic artist meaning that he uese a wide range of mordern technolgy and electronic media. 



Lozan-Hemmer piece called Body Movies perticaly excited me. In this piece he projected huge portates of to a theater, however by placing two masive lights at groud level it is not clear to see the portraites until someone talks passed an casts a shadow upon the building. Only when all porties where convered would it change to a new serious on porties in different locations on the side of the theater. Lozan-Hemmer explained wha his work was about through an inverface, he through this was crucial to the work.

This piece lead to social interaction between strangers. People who did not know each other where ineracting in the space together. 'stangers, people that do not know each other do the craziest of things together, its really nice.'  'it makes a special kind of comunication between people' 'it allows you to play like a child'  are what some people said about his work. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MGMyVfFh8Q

This piece of work excited me as it lead people to interacted together and become sociable with strangers through the use of light and projection. This lead people to realise a sence of freedom and become more childish, this is something I would like to try and explore. Lozan-Hemmer succesful broke down barriers between strangers and got people talking this is something I would be able to hopefully do.  
As I know I would like to do something with film for my final outcome. I think this is a very intresting way to pressent my work. This would also lead to further interaction between people with would further develop the messages of my work.

Influence of New York

From the beginning of my project, my trip to New York was an extremely strong inference. My initial idea was to explore social interaction. This deeply stemed from my experiences of my time there and memorable events and moments. I felt throughout my trip that there was a lack of social interaction, particularly in places you would expect to witness this type of activity. For example when we went to Times Square, a place known for people meeting and gathering, I noticed that in fact there was very little social interaction or true emotion. The only interaction was glimpses of people lives which I heard in moments of conversations. This was in strong contrast to somewhere like Harlem which we also visited. When we were in Harlem I felt a lot more soul, feeling and emotion towards the place. I think this was due to how the people around us interacted with us and wanted to interact. Another form of social interaction which I found interesting was the dynamics of the group of people that came on the trip. The way that other people interacted with the New Yorkers in these various different locations. To spend an intense amount of time with a small tight group of people lead to intimate conversations, jokes and strong relationships. All of this got me excited about social interaction and lead me to want to explore in further.

A lot of the artists that I saw in New York also influenced me to think about how I will potentially explore this concept of social interaction.

After seeing Picasso's Gurnica and the messages and values behind this piece it really made me want to make a statement with my work and think strongly about messages created by artworks. Gurnica is a piece of artwork which often insights strong reactions from viewers. The strong political around this piece is something that extremely interested me leading me to do further research around the bombing in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes

The height of everything in New York and the wow factor which it gave me is something that blew me away from the moment we stepped out of the subway. The height and power of the buildings shocked me from the beginning, however made me feel like I was a part of something greater. As well as making me feel like I was on a film set.

The idea of being part of something bigger and greater than me on my own is something that I definitely want to explore further as I develop my personal project. I quickly realised that I wanted to create a way for people to add a part of themselves and have an opportunity to become something bigger and better together.

The idea of being on a set is also possibly something to explore further too. I loved how it felt quite theatrical.

Throughout New York I also noticed very ornate trees. These trees seemed out of place and part of New York at the same time. We took a moment to sit and draw some of these trees. All these trees almost seemed like wire and delicate, I would hope that I can reflect this in my work. These tress made us pause what we were doing and take a moment to look and think. I think that fact we all paused is something I could hopefully get people to do. I would hope that people could have a moment to pause and think, even if it was about something unusual.

I was blown away by seeing the Statue of Libery, how huge it was and everything that it stands for. Our visit to see it was really exciting. The idea of having such a strong and beautiful image of a women repencenting huge messages of freedom and equaility astonded me.

Final Piece Video Process

After doing my happening, I knew I really wanted to do something interesting with the film of it. 

First Edit:

After watching the film back I knew I wanted to speed it up, so that people could see the whole happening in a small amount of time. I also wanted the wishes to appear on the screen so that people could see the wishes in more detail. I then thought about sound, I thought it would be interesting to have the wishes read out. I questioned wither I should read out the wishes myself or I should ask different people to read out their own wishes. I came to the conclusion that it should be my voice reading the wishes out, this is because I was part of the tree and people tied the wishes on to me, and personally being part of the work is something I was aiming to explore, like most of my artist. 

First Video
http://vimeo.com/65767219

Second Edit:

After finishing this editing process I re-watch the video and was really annoyed about the black space surrounding the footage. This led me to think of various different ways in which I could fill this space. I thought it would be interesting to fill the space with beautiful photographs of the tree. I thought this would be effective as this lead people to be able to read the wishes more and see more clearly the build up of wishes and also how the tree filled up even after the happening had happened. Although I still wanted the text of the wishes come up as a read them out, this lead we to want the text coming up in the black space around we as well as the images. With the sound I felt there seems to be no build up or tension build, therefore I decided to over lay my voice reading out the wishes. I think this was effective as it added a lot to the video and make it seem more exciting. I also started to think about music but was not sure.

Third and Final Edit: 

In the final edit of the film, I was so delighted with how the pictures and wishes appear in the negative space, I though it would be exciting if it changed between, wishes, pictures and extra footage or repeated footage so that people could see this also in more detail. Also the adding of music made the piece feel a lot more emotion and tenses, which I liked. The decision to put some bits of the film in black and white and other effects makes the piece more exciting and focused on various bits of the video. 

Final Piece 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CqHHZId0gE&feature=youtu.be

Final Piece Plan

Aim: To create a happening, of a human wish tree. I would hope to build up to the event through marketing it effectively, leading to lots of people coming to my event. I will ask people to write and place wishes on my tree which I will be a part of.

What I will achieve over my three day exam;

Day One:

• Paint or cover two boards in black emulation paint or fabric 
• Start to build the tree around a wooden chair 
• Design the posters and create other ways of getting people interested 
• Start to put up posters and create word of mouth

Day Two

• Keep building up complain, through posters and invitations
• Finish building tree/dress/chair
• Make tags for wishes
• Plan how people will come in and wish
• Record peoples voices saying 'I wish...' to play on day three
• Do test shots and plan how to set up camera

Day Three

• Finish setting up how people will come in 
• Make more tags for wishes 
• Doing the happening 
• Watch and edit film 

Even through my happening is over, I would hope that wish could be forever adding to the tree, I could make this happen by

• Leave empty tags by the tree
• Giving out tags in public spaces
• Giving empty tags to tutor groups 
• Leaving a box of empty tags in the staff room
• Leave a box of empty tags in social spaces 

Day One,

I put up the boards and decided to drape them with black fabric which was pleated. I decide to do this as it added a theatrical element to my more and made it seem more like a performance. I then found the chair in which I wanted to uses and started to build the tree around it. I wanted to keep all the colours very natural and earthy. I also knew it was very important to start the marketing for the happening so that there was a lot of word of mouth and well as interesting and exciting forms of invitations. I decided to create a serious of posters, which were very simple and all inviting people to come and make wishes. At lunch time on day one, I ran around the school and covered it in posters advertising my happening so that people would come in from the break and be over wheled with these posters leading them to wonder what was going to happen. I also created extremely small and detailed inversions like Gillian Wearing does and taped them in various places around the school, this lead to a senses of mystery and intrigue around the happening. I also created very detailed personal invitations to give to some people and teachers. This all created a buzz around the happening and lead to word of mouth. 

Day Two, 

Because of my strong forces on marketing on day one I still have a lot of building of the tree and dress to do on day two. However I also wanted to keep the marketing strong so that a lot of people would come to the happening. I eventually finished building the tree around the chair with willow sticks and wire, I wanted to make sure there was a lot of hanging points for people to hang their wishes on. Because I did not know how many people where going to come, I made loads of wish tags for people to write on. I also wanted to do test shots for the film as the video of the happening was really important to me. From doing the test shots and starting to think about how I would set the room out, I really wanted there to be a record of people says 'If I had one wish...' playing in the background so that hopefully this would lead people to come up with the idea of what they want to wish for quickly and would not be standing around holding people up. I also wanted to keep the marketing going, so I put a small poster in every red folder in the school so all the tutor groups would know.

Day Three, 

How everything was layed out was very important, so that people were not queueing, holding up or waiting too long to tie their wishes on. This is why I decide to create an L shape with the tables this was for two main reasons. Firstly that people would walk in and follow the tables this created a flow of people and not build up or queue. Secondly it framed myself sitting in the chair extremely well makes it seem like more of a performance and sceptical. This worked very effectively. I was overwhelmed with the amount of people that turned up and supported my work. After the happening I watch the footage back and began to plan and edit the footage to make a supporting film to my tree.