Just started to write this weeks blog and realised I didn’t post last weeks!
This is a very bad photograph of a drawing I started on Friday. I missed most of the week as I was away for a few days. So all I had time to do was hide the gaps in the installation and give it an extra coat of paint.
This is an equally bad video of the installation in its current state.
This week has been about rebuilding and thinking. I’ve decided not to attend the VR section of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, even though its just up the road in York, because I don’t want to get over influenced by anything I might see. Equally I’m not at all interested in FPS or general RPGs. I think I need to solve the problems I have now rather than find new problems to further cloud the issues I encounter.
One of the key things I found during my open events was that the piece lacks coherence for an audience, there is no target so there is nothing that guides a user through the navigation. If you’re not going anywhere in particular it’s difficult to know which way to go, or what to be drawn towards.
The list of things I need to do begins with the rebuilding of the installation and the need to make textures for the VR environment. I began by taking the space apart this week.
Installation piled up in the studio
I then laid out the new arrangement and cut some wedges to position the panels on Monday.
New installation layout
It doesn’t seem a lot to have achieved in a week.
Alongside this I did some work on the VR space but won’t have video showing the changes until next week.
Student feedback on geranium – aesthetic
Still considering the feedback from the open night and the first group of students. At the same time I need to keep working on the things I know I want to achieve with the space.
I’ve noted before that the difficulty is to keep in mind the developments I want while taking on board advice and comment, especially about the experience of using the space.
Student feedback on geranium – technical
There are not really any comments on the technical aspect of the space, barring things I already noted myself. The sound needs a lot of work and the experience would be more comfortable with a wireless headset.
When the students were around last Wednesday a few of them broke a maquette so I’ve had to repair it. I left it until Monday after cleaning the joints. I’ll have to finish it on Friday.
broken maquette
repaired maquette
I also worked on the next iteration of the garden, the new ‘trees’ from the splashes work ok and will probably withstand much more detail and a better material finish.
The next phase, after the group of students on Wednesday is making some new materials from the drawings. I will also make some short video clips to try out the video garden.
On Wednesday I had the final group of students around to the studio, they once again confirmed the feelings of each group that has visited the space. The main thing I take from this is that nobody wants to criticise and people are basically nice.
Last group of students visit the studio
There were a few more comments placed on the board that confirmed the things written above them and spoke very positively of the experience.
I got another video that indicates that as the file size rises the space tends to glitch a bit more, I need to find out if this changes when I ‘build’ the space as an executable file.
It also gives a first view of the new space, in this case added as a ‘next door’ to the drawn garden.
Having got the visits out of the way I’m able to move forward with the things they highlighted, firstly I need to revisit the installation, reorganising it to make the space more enclosed and changing the interior to reflect the VR space more obviously.
new installation layout
I started to play around with arrangement of the space that can provide the more claustrophobic feel.