Final Proposal
Process Materials
Mock-up on location.
Sketch and materials.
Questions
What did you discover about your creative process over the course of the semester? What did you discover about your preferred processes through this particular assignment?
Over the course of the semester, the thing I was more or less forced to come to terms with, if not just discover, was my tendency to procrastinate. When I give myself the time to produce and refine work I’m proud of, the outcomes are amazing, and improvement is fast. However, when I do not (in most cases), my work suffers as corners are cut in order to create a finished product at all, and I suffer as I stress and put strain on myself to complete my work to an unsatisfactory result. In the past, I was able to brush off work without any consequence but now things have changed, and I knew my habits were bad before but now I am more committed than ever to breaking them. Over the course of my particular assignment, I rediscovered my ability to create spontaneously and was reminded of my own creativity and capacity to produce good ideas, something I had been doubting. I was also reminded how much better my work is when it relates to something personal to me or one of my interests, but I suppose this applies to everyone to some extent.
Tell me about your separate experiences with on-site research and primary/secondary source research. How did these separate investigative methods inform your final work? Was one more valuable to you than the other? How did the two inform each other?
My on-site research was extremely valuable to me; it provided the basis of my entire projects and gave me more informational material to work with than my entire outside source research. While I did have to use this research to back up things I learned through my primary on-site research with a citation, that was about the extent of its usefulness. The information and insight I got directly from someone who the issue is affecting, my friend Razer, was invaluable to me.
What did you learn about your approach to research through this project?
Not much, if I may be honest. My approach to research is iffy at best and I could definitely exercise it more, but I didn’t really have the necessity to for this project.
How did Part 1 (The Proposal) and Part 2 (Imagined Future of a Monument) influence one another?
My proposal completely inspired my writing for Part 2, as I had already completed it when Part 2 was written. I considered all of the outcomes I listed for this project for different people seeing it; to those like the homeless people it was built for to those ridiculing them. I had originally planned my Part 2 writing to include four seasons, taking into account all different perspectives including a rich white gay man and his long-distance boyfriend, a new college student high on edibles for the first time, along with those included, but ended up cutting it to half that as it was already pushing the word count and sufficiently demonstrated what I wanted about the monument. While the first vignette shows the monument functioning at its best, the second is about the limitations of the monument and keeping in mind that it alone is not the solution to the problem.
What was your intention for this assignment? How do you feel you successfully conveyed that intention? How do you think you could have conveyed that intention more successfully? Please consider both Part 1 and Part 2 of the assignment.
My intention for this assignment was to create a functional monument that could feasibly exist and had an aesthetic that I felt melded with my own, and I feel as though I conveyed it very well through both my final piece and writing showing the monument in action. Rainbows are a huge part of my aesthetic preference, and I think they’re beautiful, and I got to combine it with LEDs (a medium of choice for one of my favorite artists of all time, Jenny Holzer), and solar panels (something I’m very interested in and incorporate into many projects). My gesture was immensely successful so if nothing else, that alone is more than functional, but the monument design also has a functional purpose in both its heating abilities and the accompanying supply drive that would go with it. I was so excited about the finished product of this project, in fact, I began looking into how to make it a reality, and will likely be refining it for future endeavors in creating a real functional monument for the same purpose as this one.
How has this project changed the way you see?
This process has changed the way I see in that I consider monuments an art form that I can actively create and participate in. Before doing this project, I never gave much thought to monuments, I never really paused to reflect about what they were saying by existing or their purpose. I barely even considered them art, just something that existed on my landscape. Now, however, I see them for what they are, and especially with the intended reflection that comes with seeing my project, I will take this thoughtfulness with me when I encounter other monuments.
