Although in my last post I talked about what criteria my COP Practical needs to fulfil, I felt it necessary to go back to the theory in my essay to guide my practical. This is because I want to explore my theory through my practical.
The Theory:
That Craft is still relevant because we are searching for closeness in an increasingly alienated world and craft is perceived to or does facilitate closeness. It does so (or is perceived to do so) in four distinct ways: Physical Proximity, Social Proximity, Emotional Proximity and Temporal Proximity. This is ingrained in the very structure of my essay, with a chapter for each proximity.
From my tutorials with Richard we came up with the idea of representing the different types of proximity explored in each chapter. We talked about the fact that there are some very distinct quotes that beautifully kick off this exploration and could sit at the beginning of each chapter as well as in the text.
This lead to the idea of four distinct chalkboards each with the quote lettered up, the design informed by the historical context of the quote (temporal proximity) and submitted together with a time lapsed video which would show the physical and social interaction facilitated by the process and a detailed record, on my blot, of the design process, trials and errors (emotional proximity) experienced throughout the process.
I took these quotes and annotated them looking at how I might address them if I were to create a chalkboard from each.
I knew I would be needing some pretty big chalkboards to do this so I went and talked to the students union. They had four large chalkboards put up in the cafeteria for me. this could work perefectly because of the communal space in which they sit. I have been thinking that I could even send out an invite and get people working in the space around the boards. Creating the 'fraternity' I discussing in my essay.
Crit Feedback:
The feedback I received during my crit was luke warm. People seemed to generally understand what I was doing, but not necessarily the nuances of the theory. It was suggested that I stage the process out in Leeds rather than the controlled environment of the college. This is a good idea and something I have considered at length. However, because of the scale of what I am doing I would have to look to applying for a permit for a kind of street performance, which takes a few months to go through. Also the delicate mater of chalkboard art means that if the weather is poor it will simply wash away my work as I do it. Also I would be very reluctant to take expensive camera equipment that belongs to the college out in the city, in a position that I will not be able to constantly watch it and it would be unfair to ask any of my friends to film it for me because they have their own COP 03 Practicals to be thinking of.
Another suggestion was that I upload the video online and measure the views, as a means to numerically measure the social interaction with the piece. This is also an idea worth considering. However, in terms of the theory it begs the question whether interacting with the video online is social interaction as I have quantified it in my essay. It is not actually between people, so can it be termed as such?
The main thing that I have taken away from this is that I need to create a more systematic recording method that explores each type of proximity separately, despite the fact that my conclusion is all about how these theories are unified in practice and very hard to practically underline separately. I will also write up a full rationale document or post that looks specifically at the synthesis between my practical project and my written submission.
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