Locating: Evaluation

The Locating unit has been a demanding and insightful project. We have had to keep the 'risk-taking' element from Intentions in mind, whilst juggling 2 projects and underpinning an outward facing approach. I feel the true test of the project has been in the balancing of a prescribed live-brief and working within limitations and towards an intended purpose, whilst also having the freedom to establish ourselves as creatives in our self-initiated projects. I found myself concentrating mostly on the Rochdale brief for the beginning of the project and realised my self-initiated was in danger of neglect; I feel as an artist/designer I'm learning that its acceptable and sometimes integral that separate projects and research spill into and inform other endeavours.

Locating: some samples from body of work

I've realised working with archives is beneficial to my practice, and I think research of objects and artifacts will continue to become a crucial part of my creative practice. This is something I look forward to carrying into Unit X in the 'Imagined Museum' option; appropriation and retelling of objects narratives is something which is a driving force of my work.

As intended, this unit has given me the room to develop my illustrative hand, and I am confident in a style I am developing more and more (like intended at the end of Intentions). In reflection of this I do think my more graphic samples worked best in this project and I'm learning that although it is always crucial to explore and experiment with processes, its important to know your strengths and to play these to my advantage when exploring new avenues.

'Dandy no.2', digital illustration/print

I feel I could have developed my structural pin-tuck work further, and as there was a good canon of related work in Intentions i could have really pushed it in Locating; I feel structure and form are definitely elements I wish to revisit in the next unit and should really consider the possible relationships between my structural work and my more graphic, illustrative pieces.
My understanding of both the Ethos programme, and the technicallities of the multi-head machine have developed to a confident level as it becomes an integral element in my personal practice.

'Dandy no.3', digital illustration/print

This unit has pushed me as a designer/artist and the nature of my samples have informed me much more on the context my work would is beginning to fit in; I definitely see my work in the grey area between art and costume (similar to Shonibare and Velucia) and hope to further explore this in the next unit, perhaps even with a full costume installation for the Unit X exhibition.
The body of work produced for Locating has informed my practice tenfold and I feel confident with a style and aesthetic idiosyncratic to me.