This was the team:
Lizzie Towndrow
Bea Wilson
Matthias Geisler
Kunyalala Ndlovu
Megan Sinclair
Spencer Walton
And me!
We connected on the basis that many of us worked in 3D, we wanted to make work that was at least partly interactive, and we wanted to be quite playful, not deadly serious.
The project ran from before easter, but balancing it with the other competition projects etc was difficult, especially with quite a large group. So, work didn't really start until after the easter break. We did manage to confirm a great venue quite early, so we had just under a month to fill it!
The space is inside the Weiden & Kennedy offices, and we were super lucky to get it for free in such a great location. W&K are a global advertising agency (do stuff for Nokia etc) and Alex Bec from 'It's Nice That' (who was helping the tutors review our projects) pointed us in their direction and lovely Laura Vent gave us this space on the spot!
The concept we proposed was a play-room for adults, trying to get young working people to relax and play in a more creative and imaginative way. We individually began imagining the space and what would go inside it, to make sure we were all on the same page.
We began working anywhere, anytime, often until crazy hours of the morning. We used a lot of cardboard, gathering it from the street, skips and supermarkets. We gathered so much I think I began to see cardboard when it wasn't even there. This is some lettering Matthias designed that I translated into 3D.
This is a little collaboration I did with Lizzie at her house. We made two foam racers on wheels that you straddle while someone else pulls you along....pretty bizzare but ticks the box for adult play I think.
Lizzie and I also went to the space a week before set-up to paint a mural on a garage door. This was to be a permanent feature, and our groups gift to the agency for lending us the space. We projected one of Matthias' robots and traced from that, but painting on to a corrigated garage door is extremely long!
The digital work Mattias had been doing was great, designing the logo and inventing these beautiful robots, so we were able to create e-flyers and screen printed posters, and spread the word via Facebook and It's Nice That.
SHOP AND BAR
THE WINDOW DISPLAY
We were only allowed to use the space for a single night exhibition on Thursday, but we had a shop window (next to Absolute Vintage) for the entire week to try and bring people in. I wanted to make a big impact here so a lot of my time went into this. I made the big 3D logo, and then a strange chase scene suspended above (except Lizzie's eagle).
STAIRWELL
The main exhibition was up three floors from the shop-front, so we had a big stairwell we could decorate to guide people up. Megan, Spencer and Bea did a collab on this using coloured electrical tapes.
CARDBOARD FORT
The focal point of own exhibition space was an enormous cardboard fort built mostly by me and Matthias on the exhibition day (non-stop!). Initially we were thinking of constructing only half of it and allowing the rest to be built by visitors on the night, but decided against the mess! The fort was full of bean bags and shelves with sweets - somewhere to chill.
The focal point of own exhibition space was an enormous cardboard fort built mostly by me and Matthias on the exhibition day (non-stop!). Initially we were thinking of constructing only half of it and allowing the rest to be built by visitors on the night, but decided against the mess! The fort was full of bean bags and shelves with sweets - somewhere to chill.
PHOTOBOOTH
This was Bea's baby - a walk-in photobooth that was a bit like Twister in that you had to touch different coloured shapes on the walls and floor, forcing you into awkward positions with other people. Photos were then taken and a massive collection was uploaded on to Flickr for everyone to laugh at:
FATTY RACERS
The two racers that Lizzie and I made had a track marked around the cardboard fort - great fun!
COMPUTER CITY
Megan made a cardboard city with the help of Spence and Matthias, into which we placed a tv hooked up to a SEGA Megadrive. This was then projected on to a massive screen looking over the space with a HD projector. Sonic? Streetfighter? Quality!
MOBILES AND WOODEN CARS
The space had some great adjustable lighting rigs which Kunyalala (Kone) used to hang colourful shapes of MDF as mobiles. He also cut and painted some simple toy cars too, which were scattered about the place.
SHOP AND BAR
We had a small shop at the exhibition selling screen-print posters that Matthias and Bea made, and also screen-printed aprons that me and Lizzie made, with different costumes on (knight, mermaid, cowboy, robot). We had a bar with free nibbles and booze including Skittles Vodka.
THE NIGHT!
The night was a great success. It was busy but with a nice relaxed atmosphere. After the show finished we let off a chinese lantern in the car park to commemorate the end of our hard work. The night was filmed by Weiden&Kennedy too, with interviews, so wait for that film, may be quite embarrassing!
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