Group Growth
Having presented our project on the 23rd of March we had some great critical feedback which allowed us to further develop for our final summative assessment. There were three key things we were told to think about: timing, problem expansion and speakers. It was clear that the co-lead and I were the most confident when speaking and this was addressed in the critical reflection notes. This week’s focus was narrowing down the presentation and addressing the problem in more depth. After another 3 hours video call and discussing what the non-speakers would like to be said on their behalf showed us how far we had come as a group and level of trust and understanding we had with one another.
Personal Growth, Research and Reflection
After almost 12 weeks of this module and the blogs I felt this week my personal growth and research became one overall reflection, hint why this section has been combined. In previous weeks blogs all my sections were very separate however this final week has showed me how they have all weaved into one.
After formative presentation there were two things I wanted to achieve: a more innovative presentation and professional visuals. I went back through the presentation re-designing each individual slide making it more cohesive and flow professionally. With myself being one of the main speakers, I felt that changing the slides slightly so I could navigate my way through professionally will make for a more convincing pitch. From comparing to other groups interior disciplines sections, it was clear to me that my own work lacked that visual wow factor and needed to change, however only just in the early development learning stages of the software I knew I needed to get some collaborative advice.
With the presentation in hand and to a high standard, this week’s research was on software. Currently using 3DSMax and just getting to grip with the software and after numerous failed attempts of importing the sketch up files, I sought my course leaders help Claire Diggle. She suggested that scaling down the drawing would increase my chances of a successful import. Even though this was helpful the software was still not handling the file and ultimately kept crashing. After gathering knowledge from my fellow discipline peers and how they have gained high visual renders and what software they have used; I realised that my own computer was not compatible with their use of software. However, Claire did mention Key shot, a visual rendering software tool that product designers use. I had never heard of this however decided to give it a try and from online tutorials and products designers guidance; voila! It worked!
I’ve realised that sitting in silent isolation is extremely unproductive both for my work and own sanity, this week’s software challenges proved this. Before this group module started, I would have never asked for help, but I believe that this project has made me adopt a new way of collaborative communicative thinking. Even whilst using Key shot there were challenges but a quick shout out around the studio produced multiple creatives who were willing to share their skills and therefore asked for mine in return, both of which were multidisciplinary Postgraduates and Undergraduates. This level of kindness and respect between creatives is something that has stood out for me over the past weeks and in return my own skills have been further advanced and being able to produce rendered visuals has allowed me to take these communications skills, confidence and a widened creative contact network forward into the summative and future practice.
Illustration list:
Fig 1 - Spasskova, T.S (2020). The photographer portraying isolation and loneliness in lockdown[Photograph]. I-D. https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/y3zdm5/photography-taja-spasskova-isolation-quarantine