Domino Effect.

During the beginning of the domino workshop I put very little forward into the group. It was easier to do individual work and then join the pieces together instead of discussing a set pattern and help one another to construct it together. However, towards the end of the workshop I became more confident in myself making it easier to talk to new people and put forward suggestions on ways to build a group domino effect. By the end of the day I was able to propose new ideas in ways to lay the dominos out so they would fall leaving creative layouts on the floor.

Working as team, again, to start with I was shy and did little to contribute to the team I was a part of, but as we did more team work I became more comfortable with working with people I don’t know, allowing me to easily suggest elements in making our group work better.

Agreeing on tasks and dividing up responsibilities was fairly easy in our group. When a suggestion was put forward in the group that was liked, for example a small scale spiral, another member would pick up dominos and started constructing that idea. When other ideas, such as another spiral but on a large scale and a bridge to connect two groups together, were decided again we just split ourselves up so everyone was doing an equal part.

During the day, the only problems I encountered was accidently knocking over the whole layout of the dominos set up. This was very easy to solve. When it did happen, it was quickly laughed off and then rebuild by a number of team members depending on the size of demolition. To stop the same problem from happening twice, 1 or 2 blocks were taken out every 10/15 dominos to prevent a large number of dominos to topple over again.

I recorded what I had done in the dominos workshop by taking various photos of the different designs me and my team had created.

At the end of the day, the class was asked to produce a large scale domino piece that filled the full room and used different materials that we found in our workspace. The class was split into 4 separate groups which each found a small space within the room to work with. Objects such as barrels, boxes, tables and the ceiling were all interpreted into the class model. Each group individually produced a small section of the domino product and by talking to people within the others groups we were able to develop creative ideas in how to join everything together so could  generate a working large scale domino topple.

In personal opinion very little went wrong in comparison to the things that went well. As said before the only thing to go wrong was if the dominos was accidently set off, but this was easily overcome. The workshop showed me that art doesn’t have to be drawn or painted, it can be through using any materials. It also doesn’t have to be a permanent fixture. Another thing that I thought went well about the day is that it allowed me to explore different mediums of art and to be more confident in myself. I was also able to meet and talk to new people in my class. Personally I would not change anything.

I believe that I could have been more effective with my time. During the morning I spent more time watching what other people were doing instead of thinking about creative ways to build the dominos myself. During the full class piece, our group spend the majority of the time struggling to think of ideas in ways we could build our piece, this left us little time to actually construct.

With the day overall, I was very satisfied. I thought the day was fun and allowed people to mix amongst each other, particularly with people they wouldn’t speak to unless forced. This allowed me to make new friends within the course. The day has also abled me to be more confident with myself and with the way I create/design things. ‘You can’t go wrong in art’. The day also taught me to care less about what I do and what others think of my designs.

My strengths of the day were that I have a steady hand, allowing me to layout the domino designs without knocking them over very often.

To improve the piece I feel we could have made it bigger. Instead of being in the corner of the room, I know think we could have moved into the middle to make a bigger/better finale of the domino topple.

Being an artist/designer it is important to play with your work and be creative. Doing so can allow you to find unique ways to express yourself and allow you to become more confident in the way you do it.

Being creative is about taking risks and challenges and doing something just for the sake of doing something. I believe it’s about being more confident in yourself and your designs and ignoring any doubts you have.  It can be about changing your perspective and allowing yourself to thinking differently and work with different mediums of art. It’s about finding many different ways to reach the same conclusion and finding inspiration in even mundane places.