Summative Evaluation

Summative Evaluation – Katie Wade

Within this module my researching skills have been improved as I have learnt to navigate the library resources more accurately and taken advantage of the amount of books we are allowed to loan. It’s really helped being able to find academic resources and statistics from the library this time, as this is something I struggled with in 401. I have also learnt how to Harvard reference to a more accurate degree. My essay writing skills have also been improved upon as I feel like being part of the feedback sessions have really pushed me to think beyond my initial ideas, I have seen a real growth in my abilities to extend and research more into the field.

Image making for this module was quite interesting.  I started off considering making an all-digital publication because of the context of my essay however as my experimentations developed so did my feelings towards what kind of booklet needed to be made. I switched from acrylic paint (which helped display emotion from the hard strokes and amount I used) to more delicate ink. Ink is often my go to so I often try to stay away from using it too much, however for this project I found that continuous line drawing combined with ink was really a great combination and helped me portray the emotions and tone of voice I wanted for my booklet.

However I didn’t feel that I pushed myself in the image making as much as I did with the essay. More time and consideration went into the essay making sure the tone of voice was perfect and my arguments and exploration was thorough. I feel that this was really not the case with image making. I should have been making images constantly for this project but I found it really hard to produce work that I had any connection or interest in. It was only in the last few weeks where I realised that drawing robots didn’t have to be in my final work that I felt liberated. This definetly changed my attitude towards drawing but by this time it was too late to explore to the same extent as I should have done.

I wonder now whether if more time had been spent with image making, maybe I would have had something different and more impactful to say by the end of it.

 My strength in this module is probably the breadth of research I undertook. From watching a wide variety of movies to taking out a range of academic books from the library and looking occasionally on the internet (but less this year than last). I felt a real interest in the essay and my writing was not a problem throughout this whole module. I also think a strength was my contribution to this module during our seminars, I felt like I was able to get clear direction from my colleagues and also offer that same sense of direction back to them.

My main weakness is this module was organization. My time keeping has been a lot better this year but I think I placed Context of Practice on the back burner (so to speak) for too long and in the end had to spend extra time to catch up where I should have been. Blogging was also not fantastic in this module as I was really stunted for what I wanted to say in regards to the practical work I was producing. I think getting stuck in one place in the practical work did hold me back and that in the future I will have to ask more of my fellow illustrators in what is working and how to work past the problems I’m facing.

Overall I was pleased with what I have produced for this, the booklet came out to a fine quality and I am relatively pleased with the essay.  There are things I am taking away from this module for future modules. These are the importance of making timetables, as soon as I made a timetable for COP (a month before deadline) my work became much more focused. This is something I wish I had done earlier and is definitely something to do in the future. I also think that I will take away the importance of communication, with tutors and with students. For this module I was very wrapped up in the essay writing but allowed myself to fall behind image making. If I had communicated with my fellow illustrators and tutors I would have been able to push through the creative block I had with my practical.

COP 2: Finished Booklet

This is my finished booklet for 501.

Overall I was really pleased with it, I digitally printed it onto Somerset paper. I opted to go with 120mm by 240mm dimensions because I wanted it to be slightly landscape to enhance the line drawing aspect of it. I also liked how the cream of the somerset paper enhanced the black (where as it being on plain white looked too simple and cheaper).
I saddle stitch bound it as it was neater and easier for me to do than stapling, when testing the stapler wouldn't make it through more than 2 sheets of somerset paper neatly so the decision to saddle stitch it was made there. I also tied it with a black ribbon for more than just presentation, the black ribbon represents an action which we have to partake in whereas it is easy to flip through a book passively the black ribbon helps engage the audience by having them untie it before reading.

If I could change anything theres not much different I would have done, I might have experimented on a lighter stock of paper or researched into more environmentally friendly paper perhaps involving flower petals just to add to the idea that technology isn't the end and that it can just aid the production of hand made things.

Final Version Of Essay Response

This is my final essay response to Context of Practice 2.

Context of Practice 3 Proposal

This is my first initial Context Of Practice 3 Proposal. It outlines a quite specific area that I am interested in and am hoping to delve into further.

Finalising thoughts

After recieving feedback for my cop work so far, i decided to continue on using ink to show a connection between technology and humans. I started to think about everyday interventions that technology had on our lives, from birth to death. I then created some more pages of work as well as creating a few different hot dog books to play with a size and medium (something that had been suggested to me during the feedback).

From playing with these compositions I decided I didn't want to use a hot dog book (because it was too simple) or a consatina (just because I wasn't sure I wanted my work to be continuous from page to page) and that saddle stitch bound was definitely the way forward for this practical.

But creating the small books really did help me with what I wanted to say and in what order I wanted to say it. I thought about our relationship with technology and how any humans born from 2016 onwards would never know a life where technology wasn't the aid to it. That was the main thought driving the work out as I was thinking about all the moments you encounter in your life that were private and are now hash tagged and shared and commented on.
I started to use continuous line in my work because I liked the fluidity of it and the feel of the nib on the paper. It felt very analogue and I liked that there were small human errors in my work, I felt like it showed that even though this was going to be neatened using technology there was still human sentiment behind it.  I didn't want anything too complicated because I wanted people to be able to project themselves into the lives of the figures so thats where continuous line also worked well as a medium for me.

From this I scanned in my favourite pieces of work , it was on a dodgy scanner which initially I was annoyed with however I liked the kind of glitchy look to it as it added to the feel of the book and made the line work more interesting. I cut out and stuck the scanned pieces in an order to get them right on the page, before using the scans and taking them into photoshop to neaten up the levels and eliminate that cut and stick feel it had to it.

Moving Forward With A Concept

After establishing that I wanted to show some sort of companionship with technology, I hit a plateau in my work. I experimented with some acrylic and some collage but really couldn't find anything that I enjoyed working with, although the monotonous drawing of robots really did help me work through it as I realised I didn't want to work with a generic robot look.

As I rewatched Tron: Legacy (the sequel to the original Tron), I really liked the look of the costume design and the fusion between what was on screen and what you were hearing. I then found out that daft punk had produced music especially for the movie. I started looking into how Daft Punk represents themselves on stage, as a sort of human robot hybrid and how that anonmous factor adds to the mystique of their music. I experimented with the idea of placing helmets onto famous celebrities to hide who they were and to think about the future (if we were to be combined with robots.)

I liked this but I also thought that it deviated from the idea of companionship with technology and added a darker tone of dominance. I started looking at objects that exist right now and our relationship with them, looking around the room it's a common sight to see someone on their phone checking the social media. That trust and dependence on a phone intrigued me so I started drawing based around that.

I then received some feedback during the crit, I had only produced one ink drawing at this point as it was very detailed but it was really well received and I really felt that ink was going to be the way forward for me in this. People also suggested that I start thinking about format, so the next step for me was going to be making some hot dog books and experimenting with how to present my work.

First initial ideas

My first initial idea was just to draw basic human activity. I did this by repeatedly drawing my housemates and their actions, a great deal of these actions such as telling a story or thin their shoelaces are things that presumably robots would do. I then went on to ask individuals what they would do if they had their own robot for the day (the only rule being a robot couldn't harm another robot or human). From this a great deal of people opted for having their robots complete mundane tasks such as food shopping, washing up or cleaning with a few people saying they would have their robots do things they could not (reach tall cabinets, fix other electronics). A few people said they would want to create more robots to help others, to hang out with or just so the robots had their own community. .

From this I started playing around with the idea of a robot acting as an extra member to the family, creating a small narrative showing a robots consistent companionship with a human.

Although I liked this idea, I didn't want to go with it as it was only my first thought and I'm not sure it captured the darker tone that I was portraying within my essay (fear and acceptance of a post human era). I still might come back to this concept over summer however because I feel like it could be expanded to more than just showing a strong friendship.

The one thing I wanted to keep from this idea was that sense of companionship with technology.

Analysing the Essay

In one of our seminars we were asked to bring along our essay so we could dissect it and analyse it. By doing this we could pick out quotes and ideologies that we could begin to focus on during the production of our booklet.

As my essay centres around artificial intelligence and robotics I tried to pick out key quotes for that but also tried to focus on things that aren't as directly connected with robots. I tried to think about what it was that made us human but at this point I really wasn't sure where my booklet was going. I decided to make a mindmap of technology and see how I could relate it to everyday life.