Connections and Pathways: Evaluation

Looking back at this project, in whole, and taking it forward with me, I have recognised a number of mistakes and errors, as well as a handful of very successful achievements and wins, each that will affect my choices in the future, all for the greater good! Where to start then?

The introduction to the project at the very start, was interesting to say the least, not really what I was expecting, but nothing which I wasn't going to be able to work with, as I was already hooked with the title of said project. Over numerous hours I managed to explore ideas and suggestion which could help influence the project, and then began to explore what I had noted into further detail. This was a great success, sourcing me unique range of practitioners, styles, tools and other aspects which could help to progress the subject which I also discovered in this time, yet, like everything, a positives come with negatives, and now looking back on this project I can see a major issue that was seeded in the segment of the project.

Organisation. This being in my files, physical work and recording of other vital information. This has affected my project, not to a point of a failure or uncompletion, but more a sense of over complexity, difficulty and unneeded stress. So, moving forward, I know that I need to continue with my careful planning for my projects, but not take it too far, and add to many sections to ones recording process. In comparison to what I researched and formed into my brief, I do not believe that it has been fulfilled as well as it could have in the research and development stages, due to said planning.

And with the mention of development, lets move on. From the finding of my subject to the initiation of creating the final outcome, the developmental stages of the project are no different than the previous, yet, the victories and defeats received were much stronger and harder to overcome. I am glad and satisfied with the material experimentation that I did, be it simple lino prints or highly detailed and accurate laser-wood-cut prints, the options available to me, and the ones which I managed to try before starting to create the final outcome, heavily narrowed down the path for what my final outcome was to become. Even though, I wish I could have done more for the experimentation stage, possibly looked into other options, maybe a virtual 3D piece, or maybe some spray paint work.

After the chosen path was found as to what medium as I was to work with, I needed to know what I was going to actually going to be drawing. And here, in this part, is where I have let myself down with this project. My research and findings for the project were strong and varied, but I do not believe that I have shown them as well as I could. I knew what I was doing, be in the note book or my head, but I could have laid it out better, explained myself more, be it in this blog or in the sketchbook. A number of the methods and aspects, even one or two of the practitioners I found I discussed, there isn't a lot to go on when trying to find the story behind the final piece, and this will be something that I will prove and tend to in future projects.

Even so, the methods that I discovered, skills and rules learned, as well as the inspiration gained from videos and articles found on the web, have helped to restrain my creative mind into the funnel needed to create the final piece. Through selection and rejection, I managed to decide the style of which map I was to make, how I was to make it, what to make it with, and within a time frame so that all things could go to my plan accordingly.

The outcome. In my honest opinion, the outcome was "an" achievement in some sense of the word. I am very happy with the final piece, yet I do feel there is more I could have done for it or done to it, if I had given myself more time and hadn't overwhelmed myself with over complicated planning. The size and scale of the map fits well within the boundaries of the plywood sheets I purchased myself, even though the map's edges were cut with the laser to save me time with sanding the wood, even though now I think sanding the wood might have been an interesting option before putting it into the laser-cutter.

Now since I completed and finished the final outcome within allocated time that I had planned, even ahead of said schedule, allowed to to try a few things that I had previously put aside during the experimentation phase, since I did not have the time, or that they came to me during the early stages of creating the final piece. Overall, I would like to, more defiantly, in my own time, give this idea another go, spend more time in designing the map and working with more materials.

Even still, the outcome has been a success, it has achieved what I planned at set out to do, and gave me the option at the end to keep trialling my options, even allowing me to create what could be called the "second outcome", which essentially is the original map design cut out again on wood and acrylic, but featured options I had yet not tried, such as a more decorative over functional grid pattern on the acrylic layer, and varnish on the wood layer.