OUIL501 - end of module evaluation

I found this module quite difficult, as my essay wasn’t an easy one to try and illustrate, but I feel my visual work has developed a lot since the start of the project. Before I knew my essay topic I began by visually exploring the city in different ways, depicting it in various states of change; I was drawn to do this after researching into the photography of Eugene Atget. This then left me a bit confused as to go next but after a lecture on ‘Cities and Film’ I was inspired to look more at the effects the city has on the individual, to explore the relationship between people and the built environment; this then lead me onto psychology which surrounds architecture and environmental design. I was pleased with my essay, I think I touched on a lot of interesting areas and points but I don’t feel I was analytical enough when exploring those ideas. I didn’t have a proper conclusion, which should have rounded up all my different concepts and applied them all to one particular environment; this would have made it a lot stronger. I am happy with the rest of the essay as I used a broad range of sources and have created a starting point for further interesting investigation.

I feel my practical work went really well, I intertwined my aesthetic processes from other modules into this project and made a book I am happy with. My visual work changed a lot from just pen and ink drawings to handmade textures mixed with digital, which I think looks much more exciting. I managed to create quite atmospheric pieces with the sharp, protruding illustrations of environment, which come across quite oppressive, especially the front and back cover. I think my process of photo-shopping previously used mono-print textures into shapes worked really well to create a rather bleak city landscape; one which communicates it’s control over its inhabitants. The use of puppetry was, I feel, an interesting concept and contrast to the sterile and flat environments. I wanted to convey the city’s people as flimsy and easily manipulated by their surroundings, which I think they do, the handmade, loose watercolour on the figures against the harsh background was necessary to convey this. However, I feel like I could have executed it better, I liked how the figures sat on the environments, with the slight shadow and use of thread worked well, but I think the actual figures needed more development – they looked a little too messy and out of place. I liked the use of textures for their clothes but the face and body drawings were quite weak and not very defined; they needed a bit more character in the face. 

I think my strengths during this module have been my execution of research for both theory and practical. I made sure to gather my research from a wide range of sources which included going out and doing observational drawing and photography to then work from, this definitely helped to inspire ideas. I also feel my synergy between my essay and practical work has been strong; my essay looked into how the environment manipulates our behaviour and then my practical illustrated the different ways we can be manipulated but also focused more on the social constraints placed on us to change how we act, which is a focused development on my essay. My weaknesses were that my essay wasn’t very focused towards the end and definitely needed a better conclusion; also the visual development in terms of my final figures needed more attention. I also feel I could have thought more about interesting ways to format my book, maybe finding a way in which the layout of the book could help convey my points, also with the font as I didn’t put much consideration into that either which I think shows. I feel that context is lacking slightly as well, although the book is in context with my essay, I haven’t thought about where my book exists in the real world, or who the audience is, which are really important considerations I need to focus more on next time.

Overall, I am happy with my outcomes for this project and the direction it took, I feel I have definitely opened up an interesting topic to explore. I’m unsure about whether I want to look into architecture again as I think I have had that as my CoP essay/project topic two years in a row now, but I do like the idea of exploring social constraints that are placed on us and the various ways we are controlled in society, I think that could possibly be an subject to start looking into for CoP 3.