We spent today’s studio clarifying the requirements for both the portfolio essay and the prototype report.

In regards to the prototype report, it is to be a formal document with references and clear evidence to explain an idea that comes from the probe. I will need to reference the given readings for the studio and refer to theory to explain my understanding of key concepts in relation to the studio. However since it is also practice-based experiment, emphasis needs to be placed upon how the theory relates to what I have made. It also seems important to be transparent, meaning there is no need to hide anything in an effort to claim the prototype is more effective or more developed than it really is. Instead, being still an experimental prototype, it will be useful to be honest about potential problems or room for improvement that was encountered. Most importantly, the report needs to continuously reiterate the probe in relation to the discoveries that were made.

The portfolio on the other hand can be a less formally written document, most suitably presented via a blog post so that reference to other blog posts can be made as much as possible. Also, the use of imagery will be useful to help communicate our group’s progress. This is a reflective process to communicate how my practice has changed or how I have improved during this studio. Again, transparency is an important factor.

Also, during this studio we prepared for the exhibition in week 14. This will entail our studio as a class presenting what we have been working on this semester and explaining our discoveries. As a group, we came up with the idea that to make our presentation more engaging, we would encourage the audience to interact withe the content of our presentation using online tools and services such as a Twitter feed to generate questions about the presentation, a Snapchat story to capture the highlights of the presentation, possibly a live stream to give alternate perspectives of the presentation, maybe someone generating vines throughout the presentation, etc. I think this is a great idea because it not only draws from the tools and services used throughout the studio itself and therefore closely addresses the studio, but also helps contextualise the work that was completed in an creative and engaging manner.

We distributed tasks among the class in preparation for the exhibition, in which Errol and I volunteered to create a highlight reel, visual aid that would loop in the background of the presentation. This would be made up of a selected 2 minutes of each group’s prototype placed in a sequence. This demonstrates the importance of being organised in communication with the other groups in order to collect and compile all of the content before the exhibition.