7th May, 2024
Over the course of this semester, we have been asked to study and produce immersive media pieces, to come together in an exhibition in week 14. Today, I presented my final work. You can read the didactic panel for it below, and watch the videos included. This post will involve my reflection on the process of ideating, creating and presenting this work.
You can watch the montage/visual element below, but keeping in mind that it’s not intended to be watched this way. It was designed to be viewed through the participatory experience of reflecting the projection within the space that this montage is viewed in.
There are a few things I would have liked to play around with more during the creation of this piece. Individually, looking at the elements, it’s rather simple. A projection, a speaker and some mirrors. But what if I had created a different soundscape? What if I had added more speakers, fill the room with the atmosphere of the piece? How might this have influenced the participant’s experience? What if I had more mirrors, different mirrors, or had explored more ways to use the mirrors? The montage could have been about anything – what if I made it a game? How could it look and feel differently? What would be the pros and cons of refining the project, making it more simple, or more elaborate?
I’d have liked to fiddle more with the audio – make a less musical, more ambient track that doesn’t aim to manipulate the participant’s emotional experience, but gives room for them to find their own footing within the installation’s meaning.
The feedback I received today from my tutor expressed the huge amount of potential this work presents. He proposed the idea of many mirrors, some hanging and some for participants to move around. I wonder what this could have looked like, given the resources. It was interesting and fun to watch others interact with my work, as it is such a simple project mechanically, but you might not think to do something like this unless you’d seen the works it was inspired by. Namely, Man with Mirror by Guy Sherwin.
Another bit of feedback I received suggested refining the focus question of the montage theme – asking people to describe the first time they held their partner’s hand, for example. I think this would make the work more influential to the viewers.
All in all, the feedback I received from peers and others today seemed positive. Participants seemed interested and excited by the concept of participating. It turned out better than I pictured it. With some more time, I think a more refined visual element would have been possible and impactful, but the work that I produced undoubtedly lined up with my intentions for it, and I am excited by what I’ve learned and created over the course of this semester.
