Reflecting back...

Working with different people, working in different locations and embracing a theme that was very different from my textiles work has really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I actively engaged with my group through social network as well as weekly meetings outside of the timetable, making full effort to get to know them and understand their practices as we also had three people from Film and Media course in the group. I actively participated in the presentations regularly and took advice from my tutors and peers in order to develop my work further. Although sometimes the ideas I received were very different from what I wanted to do, I used all the knowledge and skills I had learnt in my previous projects in order to be more selective about the ideas worth taking forward.

Our group had an idea of creating an interactive show where all of our ideas would link together. However, the space we were given was not enough to put that idea into action therefore we just focused on our own pieces. As an artist, sometimes you have to compromise with what you have and work with however big/small space you are given and it is all a learning process for us. I echoed the work of my fellow member as our pieces were right next to each other and I wanted to have a more collaborative and subtle exhibition.

From this project, I have learned that I am a good photographer and I don't always have to rely on Photoshop in order to make my images 'nicer'. Restricting the use of colour and just focusing on the concept was a refreshing change from all the work I had been doing before in Print and Embroidery.

In my future collaborations, I would love to create an outcome made by the whole group because having more than one person working on a piece can end up becoming very exciting and energising.