For the Odradek seminar event, I was part of the group called Manual. As a group we knew the event would be open to all members of the college, not just the art courses. Therefore we wanted the work to be approachable by all, yet hold substance among people with an art background. Interactivity and simplicity were some of our main objectives when starting the project, join the dots was suggested and this idea seemed to balance all the groups intentions. This idea developed into creating a large scale join the dots. As the idea of join the dots is quiet simple, we believed for this work to be effective it would have to be executed as professionally as possible. We used the fourth year studio which contains four large wall surfaces. In order to make the space welcoming we prepared it by emptying the room of all objects and freshening up the walls with some white paint, then we stuck three thousand, small, black dots across three of the walls leaving one wall for instructions.
The instructions on the back wall read, join the dots, and on a plinth was an array of coloured markers. The event was open to the public for the day, and the walls began to fill with a myriad of drawings and mark making. Some joined the dots, others didn’t. People pushed the limitations, but the group did not interfere. Within a couple of hours drawings began to intertwine and overlap, ladders were used to join the hard to reach places. Throughout the day the group documented the event using film and photography. We used a time lapse feature on the film to show the drawings accumulating at a fast pace. The day was successful with people trickling in towards the latter part as word spread throughout the college.
During the feedback session amongst our year after the event, interesting opinions and discussions arose. One of the main issues discussed was the fact that some people didn’t use the markers provided, instead using graffiti style markers. This lead to the complete abandonment of the original instructions given upon entering the room. As a result ‘toilet graffiti’ style drawings began to appear. The group wanted people to push the limitations of the event, but we had specifically setup a controlled environment, and wish some would of respected that. This became one of the main points of debated in the discussion. Overall the feedback was positive, and we were aloud to keep the event open to the public for a week.
A website was required to represent the group for the seminar, I was nominated to design and maintain the site. Similar to the event we decided to keep the website simple and clean looking, for easier navigation. I used dots as a theme for the home page and within the navigation menu. Taking inspiration from join the dots, I designed a simple logo for the groups name Manual, by joining the letters n and u. The website displays written work by all the artists, as well as photographic examples of the drawings on the walls and video documentation. The benefits of the website include easier assessment as it is the one source where all the groups information is accessible.
The instructions on the back wall read, join the dots, and on a plinth was an array of coloured markers. The event was open to the public for the day, and the walls began to fill with a myriad of drawings and mark making. Some joined the dots, others didn’t. People pushed the limitations, but the group did not interfere. Within a couple of hours drawings began to intertwine and overlap, ladders were used to join the hard to reach places. Throughout the day the group documented the event using film and photography. We used a time lapse feature on the film to show the drawings accumulating at a fast pace. The day was successful with people trickling in towards the latter part as word spread throughout the college.
During the feedback session amongst our year after the event, interesting opinions and discussions arose. One of the main issues discussed was the fact that some people didn’t use the markers provided, instead using graffiti style markers. This lead to the complete abandonment of the original instructions given upon entering the room. As a result ‘toilet graffiti’ style drawings began to appear. The group wanted people to push the limitations of the event, but we had specifically setup a controlled environment, and wish some would of respected that. This became one of the main points of debated in the discussion. Overall the feedback was positive, and we were aloud to keep the event open to the public for a week.
A website was required to represent the group for the seminar, I was nominated to design and maintain the site. Similar to the event we decided to keep the website simple and clean looking, for easier navigation. I used dots as a theme for the home page and within the navigation menu. Taking inspiration from join the dots, I designed a simple logo for the groups name Manual, by joining the letters n and u. The website displays written work by all the artists, as well as photographic examples of the drawings on the walls and video documentation. The benefits of the website include easier assessment as it is the one source where all the groups information is accessible.
