Place, Person, Projections! X Rocket Arists. 09.12.20

When I was tasked to design an art activity for my peers and the Rocket Artists…. I jumped at the opportunity to try using low-tech solutions to creating theatrical projections.

Place, Person Projections! is an activity within which participants can explore the relationship between place and person by making paper projections.

Using readily available materials that are low cost and able to be purchased in high street shops, individuals thought of a place they enjoyed visiting and imagined what the place would look like in either the past 100years ago or in the future 100years+.

I made the activity accessible to all by:

• Using simple slides with one instruction at a time, facilitating the activity using an incremental methodology
• Informing participants that they could share or not share their work if they wish
• Using a tangible topic of ‘places I like to visit’ to ensure everybody could be an individual yet feel included and able to make art within this subject matter
• Open body language
• Showing my screen to invite participants to take part in the activity as a form of ‘inspiration’
• Not prescribing a certain way in which people could take part, but leaving the space open for interpretation to allow for personal experiences, contributions and individual participation to occur in a non-judgemental‘safe creative space’

Feedback:

I collected feedback at the end of the activity by inviting participants to use actions of ‘thumbs up, thumbs down or middle’ to gauge whether they enjoyed the session and found it worked well.

I got good and middle responses from all participants, which was nice to hear as I had worked hard to make the activity not only enjoyable, but a unique experience for all to take part within.

Some of the feedback I received after the session included…

• “You spoke confidently and with passion”.
• “Clear instructions and good pace – waited patiently for us to get materials and settle”.
• “Loved seeing what you were doing when we were working – knowing you were doing it as well felt more collaborative and allowed us to also have a go”.

My reflection: What went well?

• Everybody shared their work – a nice acceptance of the open invitation to show artwork
• I explained what to do using language that was able to be understood by everybody – focussing on making it accessible and easy to gauge by the ‘lowest denominator’ of base knowledge within the room
• Showing what I was doing meant I was actively taking part in the activity as a participant, not just a facilitator
• Gradual working, focussing on reading the room and body language of all participants to gauge whether move on or not helped me to keep track of time efficiently
• Using actions to collect feedback – a good way to engage everybody in the reflection process

My reflection: What didn’t go so well? / Improvements?

• Should have left more time for feedback maybe asking people to say, write or draw word in response how they found the activity
• I may of come across as patronising at the beginning, but I soon changed my verbal and body language to be more open and less ‘teacher’ or ‘instructor’ mode
• Very nervous, which showed through my communication of my slides and introducing my art activity – however, my nerves decreased as I got into doing the activity, let myself go and remember that the process was more important than the product

Here is my artwork produced…

I chose to draw a bowling alley as the place I liked to visit, and imagined what it would  look like in 100 years time – aliens playing bowling!