Commune Video
London
23/02/20
As our last two trips were quite intense we decided to make the last day more about reflection, feedback, and fun commune activities. We did two escape rooms, a great exercise in teamwork and communication. For the rest of the day we just shared footage, analyzed our trip, and tried to finalize our project proposals.
One of our rules in the Commune Project Manifesto, was to document the trip through videos, and make a short edit summarizing the trip. We uploaded all of our gathered footage to a google drive file and started sorting through it, and arranging an edit. The final outcome is simple, but is a good documentation of our trip and what we did (video above).
Bristol
21/02/20
The Bristol trip also presented obstacles; the weather was very intense, and I was sick, but I still think the trip was a success. When we arrived, after breakfast we went to the Bristol market. It was quiet but there were many weird and interesting shops. We wandered for a bit, and then attempted to find objects that were relevant for each others projects.
Our next stop was the museum, again because of weather. There was a great Egypt exhibit, and we all found relevant parts for research. We did some group sketches, and other brainstorming exercises
Our next stop was the Bristol bridge. We got a nice view of it from a nearby viewpoint, took some pictures, did some sketches. We then went to "the giants cave" which we accessed through a watchtower on the top of a hill. The cave was very claustrophobic and not as grand as we had envisioned, but it lead to another viewpoint for the bridge. We were told that the watchtower itself had an interesting "surprise" so we decided to stay and explore it. Going up the steps it was an ordinary museum, but at the very top was an incredible dark room that projected the views from around the watchtower using just mirrors and lenses. It was interactive too, so we spent some time playing around with it.
After lunch we spent some time at a bookstore, and then met up with Nadines friend who lives in Bristol. This was a great experience as he showed us the city from a completely different perspective. We spent the rest of the day sharing stories, and reflecting on our trip.
Although we didn't visit as many places, we still found the Bristol trip helpful with idea generation. Our commune activities kept it entertaining, and spending time with creative people gave me fresh perspectives on my project proposal.
13/02/20
We got together In the library to make our poster and plan our trip. Unfortunately one of our group members was not able to get the right documents in time to travel to Paris, so we decided an alternative trip: we will go on 3 different days to 3 different locations. We decided on Oxford for the 19th, Bristol on the 21st and London on the 23rd. We hope that the time constraint and the variety of the locations will encourage efficiency, and also give us inspiration for our projects.
We agreed to do communal activities such as drawing on the same page, making maps, and sharing ideas to also get to know each other, and get feedback on our own ideas. We ensured that each group member had a good understanding of each others projects, so that our time together would be effective and helpful for everyone.
We also finished the poster (below) which has our manifesto and rules. We feel the name "Fish Out of Water" describes our group well as we don't know each other, and are going to place we have never been to.
10/02/20
The first get together of our commune group. I do not know Nadine or Lily very well so this was a good opportunity to introduce ourselves and get more comfortable with each other. I decided to join a group of people that I don't know as I think it will make the commune experience more interesting. We did some ice breaker exercises and then started planning. We are planning to go to Paris.
Things to do:
- Write commune manifesto
- Set Rules
- Make commune poster
- Plan trip
Oxford
19/02/20
The bus tickets we got for Oxford were 6:00 arrival and 22:00 departure, so we had 16hrs to spend in a very small city which seemed daunting at first but turned out to be quite interesting.
In the first portion of the day we visited museums as it was raining. This was perfect research for my project as there was an ancient Greece and ancient Cyprus exhibit, and Ancient Egypt, so a lot of mythological imagery and artifacts. I am still deciding on a mythology for my project, so this gave me a lot of valuable information about two major mythologies, which will help with my decision. I did some sketches and research and then we proceeded to do continuous line drawings, without looking (as a group activity).
After visiting two more museums (less relevant to my project) and seeing most of the city, we decided to take a random bus to its last stop, and explore the area we end up in. This was a fun experience. We ended up in Kidlington, a small, quiet, suburban area. I asked a local if there was anteing to do or to see, and she looked confused and said there is nothing much. After a while of aimless wandering we took another bus back to Oxford. Although seemingly unproductive, we got to know each other more, shared stories and had a talk about our projects. It was almost a meditative break.
Since the weather was still unbearable we went to a science museum and then to a massive bookstore. We found some books relevant to our themes and did some more research. We then decided to choose books for each others projects, and give our thoughts on how these books can help develop ideas. We then drew our map of our day from memory (bottom) which is another activity we decided to do for the other two trips as well. For the rest of the day we just rested, had dinner, and them took the bus back. Throughout our bus journeys we shared music as well, which was one of the rules we set.
This trip was a pleasant surprise; I got a lot of relevant research for my project and also a lot of great feedback from my group. We also stuck to our rules well, got to know each other better, and even introduced some new commune activities.