Tuesday 5/5/20 - Final Evaluation

The entirety of this project has been a complicated and difficult one, with the issues of a global pandemic which caused a lack of motivation and ideas, I’ve had to work harder than previously and under different conditions. In the past I’ve had access to the facilities at UCA and the ability to go outside for my work, with this I’ve had to change my work.

At the midpoint of the project I found myself more motivated compared to all the previous assignments. Much like the propaganda project this was because I felt really passionate about the work I’ve been doing. The project is focused around my interests whilst still retaining importance and meaning, for example being based around the themes of mental health and life issues. All of this still connected to one of my favourite musical albums.

Since the beginning of the project I have been coming up with and developing ideas to fit the overall theme of my project. Inspired by the propaganda project, I initially planned on continuing the base themes and ideas from the project but with changes I felt suited it. I have also research heavily into subjects related and even found more connections and influences through this.

My aspiration for the project was experimentation, I wanted to use skills I have learned during the course of the year and apply them to the final project. However, I also wanted to make use of the skills that I am familiar with, such as photography, but instead push myself, experiment and develop these skills through the project. My idea being to do this through the medium of film. I would use my skills in photography to help plan my shots but despite this it would still be a field relatively new to me where I could learn. With limited practice of filming in the past I felt this was a good opportunity to go further and get more experience.

This changed during the weeks of lockdown, my original plans were simply not possible as I couldn’t get footage without going outside. This set my work back significantly and left a time-gap where I wasn’t producing any other work in the meantime. Instead I was thinking over the direction of my final outcome and trying to find ways to link it with my research, with that leading up to the decision to switch to photography.

Despite this I still found a way to change things up and take more risks with my work, especially compared to my older photography. Now I was working purely from home instead of photographing the outside world and other people. The most important part to me was keeping the link between mental health and the Dark Side of the Moon album. That’s where I got the idea to project a rainbow over a mask, taking an aspect of my initial plans and using it in a new way.

Personally, I feel as if my final outcome was the best I could do with the resources at hand. I still created work that linked the important themes and topics even if it wasn’t as I had planned. Whilst my research was more directed to video-based work, I still felt all of it was important to the project. Although, if I had the opportunity to do this project again, I’d do more planning ahead and make sure that the ideas I have work in most scenarios. Or I would at least make sure that my back-up plans related more closely to the work at hand.