To begin with, we as a course were split into three groups: Exhibition design, Promotion and marketing and Install and takedown logistics. I as shown above was parted into the installing and taking down group, as the actual event was cancelled me and my group was not able to do much during this process as it didn’t happen so all the labour work such as taking plinths, painting, measuring, considering small details, organising, gathering equipment and visiting the gallery beforehand couldn’t be done much. We managed to attend workshops and group meetings to do with the exhibition to discuss the process. Other teams had just as significant job role as my group, the design team organised the layouts which was mainly figuring out where our work was being displayed, the promotion team had an important role to share the word that this exhibition was happening by making websites, Instagram pages, initiations, posters and making sure everyone was getting involved in the development of the event.
Install and Takedown process
Below you can see a photo of one of our meetings we had to discuss our work and plan our exhibition further, I am sitting next to our teacher and was clearly writing some ideas down.
From the layout post I posted before, you can clearly see that some work was needed to be hanged, us as a team had to think of a way to made them float in a professional and easy to access manner. We as a group visited the Nuclear Art Centre not too long before our event to have a clear idea of what we were working with, where the sockets were being placed, how much space does everyone physically have in which the work could not be close to each other but each individual work was meant to stand out for itself. We found this helpful as for one It was an important task we had to undertake in our group and for two we imaged what our exhibition would have looked like in the following weeks. From the visit I noticed that we didn’t have a lot of work to work with, the room was indeed divided but there was not much space for everyone to have multiple submission as it wouldn’t have been too complex and busy for our visitors to focus. Luckily as seen below the Centre have provided us with tiny hooks and binder clips that could have been used to hang people work with ease and it assured other students that they were safe to display their work how they imagined.
As videos, photobooks and zines were not to be hanged on the wall, we had to find an alternative that would also be easy to access, look simply interesting and attractive. To fulfil this, we manged to go to a different department to find plinths and tables. We overall needed three tables and eight plinths to bring into the show space, Shainy included her own plinth she already had and customized. Moreover, we found a large plinth in a size of three normal ones that could be used to showcase the zines, they are found on the bottom left corner of the layout map. Some of the students wanted their plinths to be repainted in a certain colour such as black but most were going to be repainted white. Due to the virus and the event being cancelled we unfortunately had to also cancel a dedicated day to painting which was frustrating as I would have enjoyed making a new look for the stands. Furthermore, nobody had to bring their work to our campus as the event was postponed, we individually had to do our own research from home since then as we entered a lockdown stage where we all had to stay at home and self-isolate. Here Ill present some of the plinths we were going to use at our show:
Lastly, because of Covid-19 we clearly didn’t have an opportunity to install and take down our exhibition and display photos in this post to document it, on the other hand we were fairly prepared for it if it was going to happen, there was even thoughts of having a virtual exhibition online but not many people were much interested. I am sure our event would have been appreciated, came out successful and opened opportunities to students for future events like this and show them how much work is needed to be done to make it happen, me, other teams and our teachers worked really hard for this to happen and due to horrid circumstances, we only managed to plan and promote the event.
Below is an Example of a Virtual Exhibition Amy has created to showcase our work and with the design team they could imagine where everyones work was being displayed.
Group main roles in a slide by Rochelle.
Damian's Reflective Journal 