GOING LOW WITH CRYPTO - GUT.S Documentation

Introduction

For my GUT.S exhibition I decided to promote a loose collaborative making activity, where the participants would exploratorily draw on top of a monochrome photograph of our empty classroom as an A0 canvas. This choice was based on the making and documentation of my design research project. For context, my design research question is: how might we informalise and emotionalise the issue of misrepresented technologies through experimental videography? The challenge of communicating complex technological issues such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs was decided through experimental video making methods. Thus, my GUT.S exhibition aimed to reflect my project’s speculative and experimental design methods. My exhibition piece concluded with a collective expression of our classroom, but the processes towards this outcome were also ambiguous. The processes of the exhibition can be categorized into: preparations, activity, and revelations.

Preparations

While I began with the intention of mirroring my studio project’s experimental making processes, I struggled to grasp the focus of my activity up until it was exhibited. My project eventually evolved into image making, so I decided on image making as the central idea for my exhibition. Originally, my exhibition was meant to replicate my project more literally with the use of my projector. My projector was utilised as an experimental tool throughout all my documentation and videos, mostly to symbolise how my project was just one big projection of my values and beliefs for the topic. Likewise, the original plan for my exhibition was for the projector to be used as a very literal and figurative tool for the drawing activity. We would have projected a mirror image onto ourselves, then drawing onto the photo like in the final outcome. However, the week before my exhibition I struggled to put together the photo for my activity and I also began to believe that a more simple photograph would suffice. Therefore, I shifted away from the projector mirror photo, but retained the idea of the collaborative drawing activity. I realised I could be as improvised as the simple and loose collaborative activity, so I took a photo of our empty classroom when I was walking past it the following night. The sight was perfect in how it cascaded the research we had inhabited for the year despite the absence of the people in the present. The simplicity of basing the drawing activity canvas around the space where we converse came about from an improvised photograph. The photo is also unintentionally effective with its fish-eye perspective and glass distortions, accentuating a reflective environment. Despite these revelations, the direction and outcome of the exhibition was still unclear to me, but I accepted my lack of focus as part of the experimental making process.

Activity

My exhibition’s main activity had the participants draw up anything that came to mind onto a photograph of our empty classroom. As stated, I had a loose plan towards what I expected from the participants and the outcome. As a result, I presented and explained the activity in a very messy manner through unclear and unrestricting guidelines. It was also late in the day and semester, meaning everyone in the room was tired and exhausted. Fortunately, my activity was an easy and effortless collaborative experience, almost functioning as an cathartic outlet for the group. I also just so happened to be the final exhibitor for GUT.S, placing a more appropriate context on my exhibition. This was due to the activity’s application towards the context, where the activity could only be effective within this close-knit class and specific environment. In a time and space surrounding the near end of our design honours, the activity allowed for a laidback making task. Moreover, the outcome of the group drawings were not targeted towards any specific topics. Rather, they were confined to the time and place of the space we have inhabited for a year. For example, I decided to colour in shadowed areas in the photo during the activity. The first shadow that I filled in was my reflected silhouette because I thought it would be interesting to mask my photography mistake. Another shadow that I coloured in were the ceiling panel gaps because they were an irregular hallmark of our shared space. These seemingly meaningless colour-ins could be interpreted as a designer’s need to approach visible issues and mistakes. This was definitely not my reasoning during the activity, but the other participants also added colour to the same gaps. The disorderly collaborative nature of the activity encouraged the combined expression of ambiguous ideas and feelings. Furthermore, not all the attention was directed towards the activity as well. The easy task allowed for the shift off topic towards trivial conversations on television shows, dogs and others. This lack of coherence could be considered part of the meaning, where designers sometimes succumb to unclear and playful practices in order to add life to add life to a black and white concept.

Revelations

I believe my personal take-away from the outcome of the exhibition was how my complicated year of research influenced me to strongly inhabit my design project. This interpretation could also be applied to the participants too because we have been working in parallel to each other throughout our research. Even though our design projects are very different, the fact that design research is hard to distinguish leads to obscure outcomes. For example, my design research began as an investigation into the issues of NFTs and Cryptocurrency, aiming to communicate the findings into a satirical NFT. However, as my research progressed, the direction of my project outcome became more unclear. My project has now shifted towards communicating such complex issues through experimental making methods. This parallels the progression of my exhibition, where time and uncertainty caused an entirely different direction and outcome. The uncertainty of my research pressed me to inhabit my design in an experimental and speculative way, similar to how I accidently produced my exhibition. In the case of the exhibition, the collaborative production of an obscure and expressive piece reflected what my project had progressed towards. My design was fostered by the people, time and space that we had inhabited with our research. The combination of these elements led to an environment where my creative expression was unrestricted. From the beginning, the image of my research project and the exhibition activity was seemingly black and white, but eventually touches of colour began to fill the dreadfulness. Our projects began to be addressed with emotion and personality because of an encouraging design context. This expression was brought out thanks to the time and place of our design honours classroom. It is possible that my interpretation of the piece has only revealed itself because I am required to write a reflection on my exhibition. Regardless, the ambiguous design of my exhibition has led to a personal reflection on the circumstances that birthed my design project. I still cannot fully determine the resolution of my design research, but the revelation of the people and place that have influenced it will surely affect the outcome of my project and my growth as a communication designer.