The Black Box, 2023

Fragmented realities sewn into one. We’re only ever peeking into the lives of others and as their existence extends beyond our reach, we take the role of an artist. The goal may be likeness but even in mental portraits, some angles remain hidden.

Table of Contents

But Why?
Inspiration
Problem Solving
Johari's Window
Building
Quilting
Welding
Collaging
What I Learned
Thank you

Problem Solving

Black Box has a lot of element of collaging; the quilting, the audio of mixed interviews, the mosaic and the moving image collage in the original video for the box.

What I’ve learned from the struggles I’ve had with this project;

- Before choosing a project, make sure you have the needed av equipment available and working for certain or that you can afford them. Otherwise avoid technologically demanding work. (Thank you to my partner Ben Doyle for all your support and ordering the media player last minute)

- Stand your ground; if you request something, in this case a space and equipment, do not be afraid to be a little bit annoying and keep asking it... Even more if possible. I could’ve got the space I needed, I chose to avoid conflict by staying in my allocated space which, against my request, wasn’t a solo space, have high ceiling or was in studio B. (Thank you Flora for being accommodating with our space and helping with creating the space)

- Have an accountability buddy for the challenging parts of the work. With this work, it was the filming and interviewing. It took me several times trying alone and backing out to be brave enough to ask to film people. For interviewing day, I asked a friend to join me for te first hour for emotional support somewhere where I could see them and it helped massively. Especially in the beginning when I had a moment of “should I change the whole project and just speak myself because this is terrifying”. Eventually I somewhat enjoyed the interviewing part of the work. (Thank you Eleonora Rombola)

- Keeping a separate folder for documentation of the piece rather than having it all mixed up on phone photos. I did this retrospectively and it was unnecessarily time consuming.

Links to my other works in this exhibtion