Final Major Project: Evaluation of the value of objects questionnaire

This week I conducted a questionnaire in an attempt to find out why people value or don't value certain objects. I asked 10 people to bring in 2 objects each, one that was valuable to them and the other that was less valuable to them. I have recorded my results in a book documenting also details about the people who took part and photos of the objects they brought in. Here I have evaluated my findings:

The attatchement with valuable objects:

Firstly, nearly everyone out of the 10 people I interviewed brought in an object that was valuable to them for sentimental reasons in order to remind them of places or people. For example Hannah bought in a rock which her boyfriend had given her, Carl brought an african note of 1000 shillings to remind him of home, similar to Olivia who had a ring to remind her of her home in New Zealand whilst studying in England. All of these examples show how memory plays a big part in the valuability of obejcts.  

Even stronger than the link of objects to memories is the link between objects and religion. Two out of the 10 people I asked brought in objects that were valuable for these reasons. One was Mark, an Orthodox Christian who explained how his cross worn around his neck was so valuable to him that he couldnt take it off because it is bad luck. I found it interesting when asking him if he was stranded on an Island and had to choose between his cross or his lighter (the less valuable object he chose) which one would he rather have with him. It was a hard decision for him because it was a choice between a practical object which ultimately could help him survive or his cross which he so stongly believed in. The fact that he chose the cross shows how strong his connection with the object is. Mark said that the cross “holds all his energy”.

Similar to Mark’s feelings about religion is, Olivia who explained how her ring “Spoke to her in the shop window”  because of the aesthetics of the ring for exmaple the smoothness of the stone and soothing blue colours. The ring acts as her “window to the sea”, the sea being a very spiritual and God like element to her, hence why she uses it for meditation. 

Aesthetics:

Rupert’s valuable object stood out from the rest because of its functional and aesthetic value. He said “I appreciate the size and feel of it in my hand”. When responding to the question “For the moment forget the object has a use or any value to you, now what would you use it for?” he referred back to the shape of the fork saying he could use it as a defensive weapon, to stab somone or to make things in order to survive. Because the object already has a function he was able to answer this question much more easily than those who bought more of a decorative object. A very common answer from people who did bring in a decorative object was that they would frame it or display it in some way in the home, rather than stating a functional use. Whilst answering the question Rupert found it useful to play around with its position on the table and moved it about with his hands which I think reflects how the will to interact with objects is much stronger when somthing is aesthetically pleasing. This is somthing I will concider when conducting further experiments.    

Furthermore, Shawnee explained how the book she brought in was less valuable to her because she was used to how it felt. She said how the repetitive nature of turning pages and generic shape and form was uninteresting. In other words being familiar with an object makes it less appealing to play with rather than somthing thats new to the eye and other senses.  

The importance of how people obtain their obejcts:

When looking at which objects people brought in it came apparent that the factor which made them less valuable to people was how they obtained them. For example Rupert brought in an empty envelope which he explained was “Thrust upon him, he didn’t ask for it” and therefore doesn’t value it. Jamie’s less valuable object was a leather wallet that he had originally bought for his mother as a present, then after loosing his own wallet, was given back the present from his mother. He explained how he attached the feeling of rejection to the new wallet because of how his mother had returned it back to him after not liking it. The new wallet was also in replacement for his previous and preffered wallet.  

Maybe he wasn’t as attacthed to the object because it had been passed around and possessed by somone before him, therefore it didn’t quite feel like it was his wallet. However this idea of possession contradicts his feelings towards his valuable object of a cello, passed down to him from his father who obtained it from his uncle. The cello had multiple owners before Jamie, but still he valued it much more than the wallet. He described how he valued how long it had been in his family which explains how an increase in the amount of time somone has an object, also increases the valuability of it, hence why he valued his old wallet so much which he had used for years. 

A change in value:

One factor I did not concider when writting my questionnaire was that objects may change in valuability to people when in a different context or when their function is removed. Rupert explained this concept when referring to his less valuable object, an empty used envelope. An envelope is essential for sending a letter but then as soon as it is ripped open, its original use is lost and is seen as rubbish. I suppose that this concept relates to any sort of packaging and it is up to the user if the left over material is of any further use. 

This idea could be compared to Carl’s feelings about the African 1000 shilling note he brought in (his valuable object), as he said it was only valuable to him while he was away from home. As soon as he returns to Africa he would probably spend it as he would no longer need the object as a reminder of home.   

Overall I think that the questionnaires proved to be very useful and have given me insight and more unerstanding of why people value certain objects. The questionnaire showed how sentimental value is probably he biggest factor in determening why objects are more valuabe to people. Linking to this, how people obtained the object plays a part in how sentimental somthing is to somone for example Jamie’s cello or wallet. A trend I found when asking people to completely forget the original use or value of the objects and to give them a new use, was to display or frame the valuable obejcts in some way and to throw/give away the less valuable ones. I have interpreted this trend, discovering that a valuable object subconciously still holds meaning to the individual therefore they are reluctant to damadging, taking apart the object or using it in a way that would destroy its value. The only option is to try and preserve it giving it the status of a piece of art work. I could explore my findings further by manipulating the objects that people brought in. On the other hand, I may also choose to leave results as a dead end and decide to move in a different direction. 

Final Major Project!: week 1

I decided to base my project on the interaction between humans and objects hence the title "Human Interactions". So far my research has involved looking at the BBC series "Human Planet", I have sketched and labelled some of the objects that tribes use. I found the book "perform" very useful as it is packed with performance art references, one particular project I liked was "Street Museum" by the group Colectivo Cambalache. The project involved the creation of a street display of objects that people had discarded, layed out on the road. People wold then bring objects of their own in exchange for another one already on display. I think it relates to my project because it touches on why people value certain objects.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/humanplanetexplorer/    (Human Planet website)

At the moment my research it very broad but I don't think this matters at the moment because I will start to narrow it down nest week in the final stages of research. I have already stared picking out certain things that I am more interested in such as the value of objects and have started collecting and categorising objects so that they contrast. For example ornaments (which has a decorative nature) vs. a doorstop (which is purely functional) I will examine whether people would rather have a functional or decorative object in their house etc.

The only problem I would say I'm having at this early stage is over thinking things. I think that because I learn the best from making I should maybe aim to start making by next week rather than waiting until week 3 (the exploration stage). I think this is what will help me focus my research rather than filling sketch books with references I also think I need to find a particular artist to look at who uses objects and performance in some way. I will ask my tutor about this and other students in the crit tomorrow.

Feedback from the food experiments

On friday we had a crit of our two week project about dispersal, DNA and molecular. The session was helpful because we were given the task of grading each others work (if it was a fail, pass, merit or distinction). I found that I was being too generous with my scoring because I wasn't taking in to account that when our work is marked properly we wont be there to tell the examiner what we did,  what we researched etc.....so instead of concentrating on the evidence in front of me I asked the person a lot of questions which influenced my grading.

My work was picked as an example of a project that was a high merit level (which turned out to be a much higher grade than I expected). The feedback I got was that my sketch book included a lot of evaluative writing when looking at other artists work. They said that I had written down my own thoughts and opinions instead of just explaining the work of others which is a good thing as it shows my thinking and "you get an idea of alex" in the project- I interpreted this as I gave the project character and originality.

The only thing missing from my notes and research was critical evaluation of my work which for the final major project I will need to record in a log book.
Overall I think they liked my outcome because of my presentation and the theatricality of it. I presented it as if i were in a lab, myself wearing a lab coat and with my test tube experiments laid out in a line and labelled according to what was inside them. I think that the approach I gave this project was successful as I wasn't thinking of it as an art project but more of a science project. In the future I will definitely tackle more of my work like this because I think it is a way to be individual  and creative which t me is probably the most important thing when making work because in the real world the people that get noticed are the people that stand out and do things in a different way.  

 

Evaluation of final design for my food experiments

I am finding it very hard to consolidate my ideas into final designs for jewellery. One of the things i have tried doing is manipulating photos on photoshop and placing different compositions and cut outs of the shape of the test tubes on to a picture of a friend. I am struggling because I have never used photoshop before. But I did come up with an interesting composition where I just took the outline of the test tubes instead of their content and placed it over the figure in my photo.

   It may not be very useful but i think the idea of placing different shapes and forms over a figure is kind of an alternative to drawing that I may find useful for further development stages in future projects. The image does inspire me and makes me think of slightly disturbing/ violent subjects such as the film "the man in the iron mask", being i jail, mental patients...and so on. I don't see how this directly relates to my project other than the fact that the imagery of test tubes and medicine does convey something about being ill, or treating something-maybe used for patients.

I think I could extend this project much further if I had more time. I think the reason for my lack of final ideas is because I didn't manage my time very well and I didn't have a clear action plan. These are things I will need to consider when doing my final major project in a few days. Like I have said previously when evaluating this project, a positive point is that I have experimented a lot with alternative materials which I have not done as much in other projects. In my portfolio I am hoping that this project will add another aspect the the overall view of my work showing that I have the will to be experimental , not worry about final outcomes and embrace the fact that something might not always work.

Evaluating food experiments

For this project I was inspired by the Labs at Whitechapel. I took lots of photos of the test tubes, and containers holding different liquids in the labs. I managed to get hold of some test tubes to use in my project as I wanted to treat the project like a science experiment rather than  design brief. I thought this would give my project an original feel and my research would be much more interesting. This is one of the reasons I used food as a material. 

With my test tubes I have started exploring the possibilities of different substances being contained/ let loose or contaminated. Inside some of the tubes I have placed things such as my grapes, saltanas and sugar from my previous experiments. Then I stared covering them with things like porridge, caramelised sugar, and latex to make it look as though they were contaminated. I think that my test tubes look very exciting when presented in a line next to each other. The colours blend in together and there is a sense of bacteria and growth. 

 I am now looking at how I can relate this experimentation back to my original experiments and I thought of the idea of freezing transformations. For example putting a mouldy grape in to caramelised sugar or latex which would freeze bacteria growth so the mouldy grape would remain at a certain point in its transformations. I think it links nicely to my research of timed experiments in my sketch book. I also thought about creating layers of different foods such as sugar, gelatine, porridge and then coating the whole thing in latex so that it remains contained. 

I am finding it hard to work with some of the materials for example quite often when I melt the sugar its so hot that it melts the other materials such as latex or gelatine. So i am in the process of  making more samples. I have put some grapes on cocktail sticks and also some pieces of gelatine and dipped them separately into different substances such as porridge, sugar and latex to see what works and what doesn't.

I am also worried that I will run out of time to finish the project and will end up with lots of samples and not really a clear idea of a final jewellery product. On the other hand I think I have explored the materials thoroughly. I think the lesson for the future will be don't be too ambitious with what I want to achieve in such a short space of just two weeks.     

   

 

  

Food experiments

For my most recent project I have started experimenting with food because I wanted to explore different materials. So far I have focused on looking at how food can transform through chemical reactions.

Some of the experiments I have done included a grape and 3 saltanas in bleach and another in vinegar. I have also tried putting an egg in vinegar. These experiments have all been the long term transformations because the food goes through the process of going off which takes longer then my other short term experiments. These included mixing washing powder with vinegar which you can imagine is a very fizzy and quick transformation. Another was diet coke and soya milk which causes the two liquids to separate giving 3 layers of substances each with a different weight.  I have documented all these experiments in a sketch book.

Evaluation of Southwark Sound Sculptures

For the last 3 weeks we have been working on a site specific project for Southwark. The project aim for me as a product student was to create something exciting that improves peoples experience whilst in Southwark.

My outcome was a series of experimental models, the shape and materials used to make them informed by the look and feel of Southwark. In articular I was studying the shape of the arches and was very interested in what they had been used for. Many had been converted into Office buildings and as I walked around the site I discovered that the majority of people around Southwark did work in an office. I found that Southwark was lacking in personality it was just full of passers by and office workers. There was no fun or interesting things that made its character (except maybe the Gerwood space).

My sound sculptures were designed to be placed out side one of the many offices in Southwark in the smoking area outside. This picture I took sparked off the original idea. I thought it was funny how three people are completely separate, not socialising. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to make this daily activity a lot more fun and surprising. The sounds emitted from the sculptures would be activated by the smoke from cigarettes.  

What I came up with was questionable as a product, because it wasn't something that would help people or that they could use. However it was activated by humans and it did answer the brief in terms of making Southwark a more exciting place. On the other hand I don't think that it quite worked because I hadn't fully thought through the sound that would be coming out of the sculptures. I researched the sounds existing around Southwark and recorded them. I planned to use some of these sounds and amplify them to create surprise however I don't think would have worked as well as if I'd taken a  sound from a different context and placed it in Southwark. I was battling with the idea of creating surprise or using sound to amplify the personality of southwark with sounds already heard there. Also by using a sound from another context I didn't want it to become to cliche by using for instance the sounds of the Caribbean or seagulls.

I did come up with a solution tot his problem by looking at text that appeared around Southwark. I though they would be good to use because they already created surprise when you walked around and sae them written, so to hear them would be even more peculiar. I thought they acted as little pieces of information about the personality of Southwark and therefore if I used them it would amplify the 'voice ' of Southwark. If i had used the text in my sculptures they would have been surprising coming from a sculpture that you hardly noticed was there. One of the things I considered whilst creating my sculptures is that the sound would be more affective if my actual sculptures blended in to the environment and were hidden.

Overall I think what did work in my project was my exploration of materials and shapes to capture a sense of the site. I think they blended in well with the smoking area yet were interesting to look at texturally. I think my design would be a nice starting point to brighten up Southwark in a original way. Although when considering the sound aspect I think I would need to do more research into how people use sound and in what contexts. If i did the project again I think I would think more about why I was using sound?, How do I create surprise- with the appearance or sound?, How it would affect people or change their views about Southwark?