Review of the Project 3 Walkers

Driving on Italian Highway is the lowest artificial section During the Journey.

To begin with the great experience in April, I am about to review what I have accomplished and achieved during the module Creativity in Context, also the treasure and lesson I obtained.

With some fortune, I teamed two friends and, with the same passion, we gave a visit to four Italy cities during the Easter vacation that provided me a fantastic journey feeling some Renaissance ambiance.

This fabulous opportunity let me personally felt the atmosphere of south Europe. I grew in southwest of China, where not based on a land directly created by volcano. On the other hand, I still felt enormous similar points between north Italy and my hometown.

The Spanish Steps is a place many nice artists would appear in accidentally.

Firstly, the natural environment there, deposed with many mountains even in cities and filled with warm air, is akin to the region I lived in my childhood. Furthermore, the food there involves several kinds near to main meal in where I was born, that is to say, risotto, spaghetti, and fried spicy dishes.

As the hometown of Pinocchio, Florence also contains tremendous precious worth to explore.

But the most significant aspect of the tourism activity for me, as an MA student, is obviously the art and culture elements there. Come to that, the city of Florence is the most inspiring place during the hole 10-days-long journey. As a matter of fact, I stay a reversing attitude to Rock to this city. He does not give a dip of fond to it. However I think it's one of the best places I have ever been. Of course, it's not sufficiently modern, nor high technological, and the streets there are not so wide as most cities. However, the ancient architecture and cultural spots are amazing and fascinating. These are attractions of old domains. Anyway, I can not deny the high level of Rock's artificial capacity. There is merely a little conflict between us just as many good friends contain.

Back to the project we spent weeks on. It was a special era for all three members in the team. There were some fresh thoughts I contacted when I realised what kind of commodity we were attempting to create at the end of first conference. It could be challenging, I told myself. I may be good at some software and art methods, meanwhile this project which was founding an electronic magazine could involve managing, arrangement, ability of organising, and commercial ideas. Due to these concern, it would be definitely necessary to pay more collaboration with my teammates and learn as much as I can from them.

There were lots types of work needed to be implemented during this process. Some of them were I used to work on, and the others required me to learn from start line. Generally, all the stuff and jobs I worked during this module was valuable.

Business plan is a magical thing. Even we had a clear and positive prospect in our brains and no matter how profoundly we trusted in it, a comprehensive and attractive plan to represent it is also something we have to complete.

Another role I played in this project was an interviewer. As a reliable commercial plan, an investigation to market could not be ignored. Except for some questionnaires, face-to-face asking and answers is also effective way to gain useful information. Thanks to my tutor Anneke, I got a chance to interview a local creative company. It is another kind of art to have a successful interview. It is absolutely difficult to make it academic enough and also not ossified. I must say, I did horrible on these qualities. On the contrary, as a lesson, this opportunity also gave me a chance to review myself in the video shots. Hence I can know how to modify my speaking habits in this kind of circumstance, and in daily life as well.

Arranging an exhibition stand is another job. During this Justin showed his ability in coordination various work. Additionally Rock's capability in show space design inspired me a lot. One thing can be sure was I had learnt some precious knowledge even could impress me for my whole career.

To conclude, this activity showed me that being an artist and work on business at the same time is not so severely difficult as I considered. It can be said many work seems drastically tough may be not so scary as it looks like when trying to do, especially collaborating with friends. What's more, one thought in my mind used to be profound had been changed that there were serious conflict between art and business that can not be solved.

The Exhibition in Creative Arts Building

After weeks of preparation, the display for our group work, the magazine 3 Walkers, had been implemented.

There were extremely large amount of hard work we had done. For incidence, poster making, business plan writing, and different kinds of print. All 3 members of our group collaborated closely and surmounted lots of problems and hence we did a pretty nice exhibition.

The display desk and space were designed with hard thoughts, mostly contributed by Rock. Thanks to his idea about the elements arranging in the space, our space looked comparably gracious and dimensional. Additionally, our work gained much assessment and nice ideas from people in other groups. One of which is the suggestion moving the display space to a spot nearer to the center of courtyard and disposing the posters from the white wall to the black showing boards. To be honest, I totally trust Rock's skill in design. However I have to say, the exhibition seemed better in the modified way than his original plan.

Justin did labourious work as well. He went to several print service offices and consulted with them many times in order to compress the budget and get best visual rendering for the magazine samples and posters. And my discovery in the supermarket of the unified-size chests gave some donation that providing us material to make the pillar in the display.

Actually, there was one thing worth to be proud of for us that our exhibition stand was the only one containing a screen. Although the electric wire needed to be fixed on the floor for secure which brought me extra work, this element also made our stand more abundant. As a matter of fact, we used to plan a tall television instead of the laptop. However considering the size of our stand and the voice from the television set that could bother other group showing especially during the presentations, we finally decided not to use it.

Generally speaking, this activity on 9th April was an irreplaceable experience for me and my teammates.

Ideas are more Powerful than Skills

The lecture I went last Thursday was unquestionable enlightening. All I got there was incessant inspiration. I often believe in an opinion that ideas and creativity goes prior to skills and technology. Erik Kessels, the artist giving the speech represented this point of view vividly and comprehensible.

The lecture 'Strong Ideas Allow You to Blur' reviewed several projects Mr Kessels had worked on. Each of them were quite impressive and worth to watch more times.

The sequence of his books In Almost Every Picture involved various of photos taken by some people with quaint ideas to record their lives.

Photograph by Hironori Akutagawa, Collected in In Almost Every Picture # 8

Most people take pictures of friends, family members and pets. Meanwhile some persons usually take different photos with unique ideas. From a lady's life in decades with a view of interior of fairground shooting compartments to a black giant dog with a face almost never seen clearly in pictures.

As an Artist 'producing work that rises above the level of consumerist background noise, often witty, almost anti-advertising'(Creative Networks, 2014), Mr Kessels showed us another advertising work of his, the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, also known as 'the worst hotel of the world'.





This 'honest' category of advertisements did not performed complimentary words and pictures. Reversely, Mr Kessels made some hilarious videos and posters to show the horrible service and device in the hotel with a confident attitude. 'But this hilariously honest approach seems to be a hit with travellers from all over the world - who are scrambling to book one of the 127 rooms at the hotel.'(Daily Mail, 2012) It can be observed the most effective ways do not have to be directly showing the superior section. Creativity, especially in this age, possess tremendous attraction and potential which is more than we can ever imagine.

In general, this unforgettable lecture can modify my mind in a profound level. It is totally most splendid lecture I've ever joined this year.

Reference:

Creative Networks (2014). Creative Networks presents 'Strong Ideas Allow You To Blur' with Erik Kessels. Retrieved from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-networks-presents-strong-ideas-allow-you-to-blur-with-erik-kessels-tickets-10655491863?utm_campaign=order_confirm&ref=eemailordconf&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eb_email&utm_term=eventname

Daily Mail (2012). Proud to be the world's worst hotel: £18-a-night hostel which boasts about filthy rooms and tells guests to use the curtains instead of towels. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2232828/Worlds-worst-hotel-warns-visitors-sue-Hans-Brinker-Amsterdam-boasts-filthy-rooms.html