My collaborative group consists of me (a Fine Artist), Loretta a Designer Maker, Simon an Illustrator and Bella a Ceramicist. None of us had met before and we all come from very different disciplines and backgrounds, therefore it has been interesting working with them.
We all chose the theme Migration within the City project and we began jotting down various ideas we were discussing. We thought about what migration meant and how we could apply it to the city. We eventually decided on possibly our most simple idea for a starting point which was birds in the city, such as pigeons and seagulls, as it is in a bird’s nature to migrate from one place to another.
We each studied the anatomy of birds to get the idea of how they moved, we also researched the iconic style of Steampunk as we each related this kind of metallic imagery with our ideas. We then went away and made our own drawings and took photographs. Unfortunately with my camera, it was difficult taking decent photos of animals that move so quickly but here is one that I got away with.
At the very beginning of our project we included a lot of industrial imagery into our work. E.g. Loretta constructed a wing using wire, cartridge paper and mount board which, once it was painted and finished, looked like it was made from steel. At the base of the wing was a cog to imply it could move mechanically. As the maker, she definitely applied her skills to this part of our project.
Bella and I also constructed wings, which didn’t quite match the aesthetics of Loretta’s wing. Personally, my strong point is not in constructing so I found this task quite difficult, however I tried to keep in with the industrial/steampunk style we were aiming for.
I made this drawing below, just playing around with ideas for combining nature with industrial imagery.
There were some complications when it came to choosing a theme, for example, Bella and I both work in a very conceptual way, whereas Simon works aesthetically and Loretta works practically. Personally I thought it best to agree on a simplistic subject as it meant we could all contribute our skills without much difficulty, as our subject would be so free we could all find something to work on. Unfortunately, throughout the entire project Bella has not been entirely happy with our theme as it is slightly too obvious and does not have much of a conceptual foundation. However, the three of us were happy to collaborate using this idea, and would be left with no other choice but to carry on with our project whenever Bella was absent.
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