Andrea and Wyatt came into help the group at a very crucial moment, during the refining stage of the project. The 2nd year buddies helped bounce around ideas of what was possible, what would work well, and how we could construct the booth. Wyatt, having experience in welding and metal work was able to tell us how to construct a metal frame for the booth, and what kind of supports it would require to be moveable (one of the possible ideas for the booth) while remaining accessible. Andrea helped us brainstorm the remainder of the composition including placement of the phones, how to hang the vinyl and additional accessories for inside the booth. Discussing the design with Wyatt and Andrea helped us solidify our final product and make it both feasible, effective, and constructable within the available installation time.

The final product, the culmination of our design, had three parts; a main focus, secondary focuses, and then accessories that added to the overall persona of the piece. The primary focus was the phone-booth which utilized the “skylight” on the far side of the bar area. We hung four large strips of the red vinyl to create a very fluid booth that was accessible from all sides but still signified a structure. The strips were stapled up inside of the skylight so that there was no seam, the booth merely stretched from the floor to the ceiling. The skylights gave the booth a natural light from the inside, and yet made the booth almost opaque from the outside. The secondary focus of the project were the telephones hung by their cords from the remainder of the skylights. The phones were hung by their cords which were stapled up inside the skylights. These phones were hung at a height that enabled them to interfere and be interfered with. To accessorize the phonebooth a phonebook and a speaker were installed within it. The book was screwed into a piece of plywood and then covered with a piece of plexiglas to make it untouchable and useless as a phonebook. A speaker with attached mp3 player was double-side taped to the top of the booth where it sat and played a continuous ringtone to further interfere with the party.

The installation made use of the entire space and interfered as much as we had hoped that it would. At Kosmic the phonebooth itself was utilized by different people for varying purposes, and the telephones were in use all night, and were popular enough to be taken home by different guests.

The team worked well together as was discussed at the post-Kosmic debriefing. We all involved ourselves as much as we could based on our varying commitments and schedules. What really helped the overall success of our project was having one team member manage and coordinate the rest of us. She threw herself into finding meeting and working times that we could all commit to. This helped ease any tensions that may have been growing, or may have started to occur, and led to a relatively stress-free and fun Kosmic installation.

Neil Carder

Major positive points that I had noticed during the construction of the cosmic installation included the sense of play. The group was able to brainstorm concepts by having fun while being creative. For example, the initial concept of the installation occurred as a joke; the group suggested sea creatures could be battling over the sitting area of the club’s basement level. Ideas seem to move quickly when given a sense of humor.

One major problem that occurred during the installation project was the actual start-up of the installation’s construction. The group seemed exited when establishing a concept but separated and procrastinated when the idea of putting the project in motion was raised. This might have been because the group was unaware of how to start the project; the group was aware of the materials needed but did not want to figure out the details of assembly. Another reason could be because the group wanted to plan the end product. This, however, was not an efficient plan because we could not come to a conclusion on the appearance of the finished product.

Ranee Leung

The group inter-relations worked well and everyone collaborated efficiently. Each individual showed aspects of initiation, in terms of displaying their own strengths with presenting their own thoughts and concepts. The development of the final product was all due to process from the original idea of sea monsters, but it developed through several different inputs. The original concept of sea monsters stemmed into a tentacle canopy and after that… the group was stumped with the materiality of the installation but once we reached that stage, everyone pulled together and finished the product within several hours. I felt that there were points where people showed more initiation in creating the work,developing the concept or leading the group, but overall it seemed everyone at one point showed each characteristic to pull the group forward. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, not just in terms of installing and creating something out of the classroom, but learning about each of my classmates and  our strengths and weaknesses as a collective group.

Aileen Ling

I thought the whole process of this was quite interesting as our original idea, the sea monster battle turned into the styrofoam cup canopy.  Our brainstorming sessions had it’s up and downs and I think we just had some trouble being in the design mind set at first.  We also did have some trouble moving away from the planning to actual doing of the project.  In general our group worked very well together for most of the projects.  Everyone was pretty open and listening.  Mostly everything went alright, it would have been better if we organized meeting times where everyone would show up.  Setting up and actually making the canopy was pretty fun and a little repetitive.  It was quite exciting to see our installation after is was completely set-up and interfering with its environment.  Overall the whole experience was great for learning and getting to know everyone a bit better.

Darby Ace

I had the privilege of working with the Makeshift 22 team to build the Sea Monster inspired Styrofoam cup installation for Kosmic Interference 2011. Working on this project was a great experience. It gave me the opportunity to collaborate with a group of people with whom I may not have done so otherwise. I learned a lot about my peers and the dynamics of working in a group. From my point of view, the major benefit of working in a group is the combination of strengths and interests brought together by the individuals. Fortunately, the group of people that I worked with was great. Everyone contributed virtually equal amounts of effort in one form or another. It was interesting to note how group members responded to the different aspects of the project. Although everyone participated in all aspects, certain people stood out as being obviously more enthusiastic about one part over another. This fact was also very important to help motivate others to move forward and work more efficiently. As a whole, the project taught me many valuable skills and techniques that I will undoubtedly apply to both academic and “real” world projects in my future.

Arron Griffioen

Kosmic had its ups and downs, from the stresses of planning, finalizing, to the actual party itself. Each member of our group didn’t follow specific roles as we planned. No one was considered the visionary or the do-er we all kind of worked in places when and where it felt necessary. I think what made it most difficult was the countless hours discussing details instead of just sticking to a plan and executing. Once we decided on a material, we began playing with the materiality and that’s when I think we came to our major decisions on the final project. The process of playing with the material made it evident to us that if we had more time we would have been able to increase the scale of our installation, creating a more overwhelming atmosphere in our section. All in all I think we did a great job and we succeeded in creating and interference in the space yet it still was engaging enough for the viewer to have a relaxing place to sit down and have a drink.

at this point, it was all doing and minimal talking, and there are somethings that can only be achieved through action and physically being on site.

It’d been less than a smooth ride, but when I finally took a step back, it hit me full force.

We’d ended where we started.  Not exactly as I’d envisioned it, far from it, but it had become something that encapsulated every quality that I’d desired in a way that I would have never been able to achieve solely on my own or if I’d held stubbornly onto my individual concept.

It was beautiful.

And it was ours.

Photos of final Project:

As for the lighting dilemma, I managed to score a used light chaser from Martin Sound which will be perfect for the timing of the spotlights over the urinals. We’ve also rented lights from them, so we’re good to go!

In the meantime…

In our breaks between shopping excursions we’ve been working on our mannequins for the women’s washroom (and a lot of hands to form a few ‘hand-chandeliers’). We’ve developed a lovely technique (with thanks to Matt and his studio project!) by wrapping ceran wrap around a person and reinforcing it with packing tape.

Cheers,

Jadeg

After presenting these ideas to other groups and second years, the thumbs up was given, and we were challenged to draw out three ‘moments’ a person might encounter in our bathroom.

And the most exciting part of the day: we now have a team name! That right, we are TEAM URINAL (Pronounced in a very necessary British accent making it sound more like team your-eye-null.)

Cheers,

Jadeg

the storm clouds parted, and then there was glorious light!

Our assigned second years, Thompson and Lauren, and the addition of actual material to work with jolted us into a renewed enthusiasm that could only come from something as elementary as PLAY.

and it was all downhill from there.

the planning, the specifics, the placement all just magically popped into existence. problems and niggling issues solved by quick-fire suggestions and almost instant universal agreement.

it was evolving into something i had no idea how it would turn out

it was a bit scary

but it was a lot exciting

she (of course its a girl) LIVES!

]]> http://www.wemakeshift.com/makeshift22/2011/01/18/salvation/feed/ 1 http://www.wemakeshift.com/makeshift22/2011/01/16/getting-dirty/ http://www.wemakeshift.com/makeshift22/2011/01/16/getting-dirty/#comments Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:55:59 +0000 jadeg http://www.wemakeshift.com/makeshift22/?p=61 Today we visited Ritual, and looks like this is where it’ll all be going down! After walking around for what seemed like an eternity, examining various spaces in the club and evaluting the pros and cons of each, we decided we were ready to get our hands dirty… litteraly. Bathrooms, here we come!

So this is what we have to work with. Well this is bound to be interesting.

On a side note, our team is now down a few members as Peter and Ulrich will no longer be with us. However, on the bright side we’ve acquire Camille and Matthew as second year ‘mentors’ to lend us a hand in whatever is to come. Thanks guys!

We’re taking a few days to let the creative juices flow, but pin-ups with our ideas are soon to come.

Cheers,

Jadeg

we came together after drawing partner sketches of what we thought it’d look like, and every single sketch was completely different.  perhaps the only common thread through all of them was a mass of curving lines, but that’s where the similarities ended.

and then something completely unexpected.

“Arron came up with this really great idea for our installation, but it has nothing to do with our original idea.”

I tenuously walked over and listened as Arron held up a styrofoam cup assembly he had quickly glued together.

He showed me some images of the artist who inspired it, and explained the efficiency and effect it would have.

I did not like it at all.  This was a complete departure from what I’d thought of, and at least what I thought the main group agreed concept was.  He was right on practicality of it, but I felt like it was losing the feel and the essence of the original.

But I was alone as the rest of the group agreed that this was the direction it should go.

majority rules. end of story.

Today was day one as fifteen or so first year keeners sat around the hub pondering this year’s installation theme: Interference. Good thing there was a ‘brainstorm board’ posted outside the hub for anyone to jot down and sketch their definition of ‘kosmic interference’. What intellectual musings did this bring out? An example was a cat inside of a cat being abducted by aliens. This sounds promising. (picture)

We started off in the way that every great project begins: We split up into teams. Cue shudder-inducing 80’s horror film soundtrack. Apparently the ‘real world’ isn’t like high school where you just team up with your friends. It seems there are actually three types of personalities when it comes to team work. There are the Visionaries (often mistaken for daydreamers), the Managers (a tactful term for control freaks), and the Doers (if the thought of sitting still and pondering your thoughts makes your skin crawl, this might be you). So, 400 hours later (okay, a minor hyperbole) we had finally classified everyone’s personality and so began the division into our groups. My team: Nam, Troy, Jeff, Christina, Peter, Ulrich and myself.

How will we interfere at a kosmic scale? Good thing we have a brain-storming session coming up!

Cheers,

Jadeg