Week 8 The City Project

In week 8, we've been given the City Project that creates a representation of 'the city'. We should investigate the city in different visual ways and build a physical response.

We were been separated in groups of three in order to start the project. The idea should include:

• Interpret the idea of the city
• Include an enquiry into old meets new
• Incorporate some or all of the techniques/ideas introduced  to us from the past Intro to Creative Play lesson thus far
• Apply the subject of energy and incorporate into our response
• Utilise the maker space and play with the materials

When separating the group, I chose to join in group 3. It's a group of people who good at following the instructions and making things. Although I felt I have all the skills that capable of producing the ideas, be a problem solver and product maker, I am not good at communication. I cannot fully explain my ideas to others as well as communicate the process. Additionally, I chose group 3 because I always enjoy creating products, I feel proud to see the final result. 

Our idea is to make a sculpture of monster mouth and build a city surround it. This is Harry's idea as he's the team leader but I don't really get the idea as it seems not really related to the requirements in the project: incorporate old & new, history and interaction etc. He intends to create a brutal fantasy monster world that based on his own imagination, which is totally opposing my style. I like natural, animals and a lovely world, whereas horror monster is an area that I nerve interested. This is out of my comfort zoom that made me feeling depress and confused. 

However, as part of the team, I had to take my responsibilities to achieve the project. I decided to fix my emotions, step out of my comfort zone and give it a try. As the aim of this module is to let us experiment, play and take the risk with divergent style and methods. I wanted to push myself into a new area that I never thought I would get into and hopefully, I can gain more experiences. 

As you can see the photos here, I started to build the ground for the city. I drew a big circle on the foam and cut it off with the saw. It wasn't an easy job because the foam's too thick, I've spent around 40 minutes to shape the circle foam, which you can see the final result below. Although it's a hard job, I am proud of the final product; it's a proper circle. 

I was surprised about the final animation. It was pretty good and totally different style compare the others. Most of other group did  the city skylines, fantasy forest and cute characters whereas our's dead land. Our monster mouth city conveyed an atmosphere of barren and desolate, one clay character walked through the city and approached to the city centre where monster mouth is. It's a short stop motion animation but I quite like it. It had visually expressed the city and physically showed people the story. I really enjoyed the process.