Project Evaluation

I'm writing an evaluation but given that I am going to continue the project it makes it a little odd. Overall I am happy with this project but it hasn't been easy and there are a few things that I probably should have/could have different. Particularly in terms of keeping my own interest in it.

Using social networking to collect and post the wishes was a good idea and one of the main factors I had ongoing inspiration and motivation for the project however I need to investigate and could have done with a lot more contribution. For the purpose of this university project it did provide me with enough wishes but for the project to go further and for the purpose of my book I would like to have a lot more. I was also hoping that I would get people submitting postcards and photographs rather than just text for their wishes but this was awkward to achieve.

If I were to do this project again and for the continuation of it I will try and increase the number of wishes and productivity by trying different methods. Posting stamped/addressed [to a PO box] postcards with 'I wish...' on might encourage a few more submissions and give me more different handwriting. I would also do more appeals on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and any other social networking type site or messageboard I could think of. Also leaving more of them in coffee shops and collecting them by hand [rather than relying on people to go online and post a wish] would be a good idea.

Ideally my main way of presenting this would be in an installation form but I feel it works equally well as a book. Sadly it appears my book will not be arriving in time for hand-in, therefore I shall submit prints of a selection of wishes and the book can go towards my degree show and showing off the project.

Something that I think works well from this is the range of content I received. I was honestly unsure of what types of wishes I would receive but I got a lot more than I bargained for and in terms of exploring my own identity which was actually my initial start point back in September I felt myself connecting with some of these people despite only knowing about what them what they allowed me to. It is often easy to think that we are alone in what we desire, but really, we all desire similar if not the same things.

Prints to accompany my book

Obviously as I mentioned in the previous posts, while an installation is the idea way for me to present this project it is not convenient nor do-able for the hand-in on the 11th so I am making a book.

However, due to postal issues it appears my book will not make it in time. The prints were originally meant to be 10-12 images that would accompany the book and be slightly larger. They aren't really representative of the project as a whole.

These are the images I have selected that are to be printed and put in sleeves and then a box. If by some miracle the book does arrive then they will just be presented with that to show off the images inside slightly bigger.

For final pieces

I've been thinking a lot about how best to present the project as well as the planned installation because obviously while that is the ideal way, it's not the most practical. I would like the project to exist even when an installation isn't possible. While prints is a great idea, there's no financially viable way for me to print almost 100 of them and so it'd have to be a small number, 10 at max but that doesn't really sum up the project and so I was thinking a book is the perfect way to do this.

There are several good online options for me to make this book but the initial layout I imagine is a landscape book since all of my images are that and I don't want there to be any text in the book besides the intial introduction at the beginning; it should just be a showcase of the images.

I've done up an initial view of what I'd like below but I shall explore Blurb and Lulu's options and experiment as well as looking at how other books are presented.

Sequencing for the book...

I tried to sit and consider what order they should be presented in. At first I was planning to put them in the book in the order that I received the wishes (this was easy to track as the Tumblr blog shows them in order) however I decided against this. The order is unknown to anybody except me and it doesn't use chronological order to seperate them thus it is not as important as I first considered it.

Instead I tried to place images together that either complimented each other visually, through the wishes themselves or also countered one another. I've put a few examples of this below...

Final wishes shoot

Postcards and their art of interaction

The one thing that has been continuously present while doing this project and researching is that wherever postcards are involved in projects it also involves, or at least looks to use, interaction. It makes perfect sense when you consider that the original purpose of a postcard was to inform family, friends or loved ones of your travels or experiences and to interact. A little momentum that you're ok and having a good time but also usually ending with something along the lines of missing people.

I found another project that I like for the interaction and the human connections. Something that I found particularly insightful was how much people disclosed or didn't. The project is called 'Postcard exchange' and was organised by the New Orleans Kid Camera Project kids who swapped with young photographers in New York.

Research - Martin Parr

I'm not sure how it's taken me so long to do this but I only just remembered about Martin Parr's series based around postcards. Although very, very different to my approach I like it for its use of postcards, which aren't really used in many projects.

His use of postcards is pretty different too. The project is called 'Boring Postcards' as well as the accompanying follow up book, 'Boring Postcards USA' and he collected the most mundane ones he could find from the 50s, 60s and 70s in both Britain and America.

The irony is that in looking at these postcards, you aren't bored. They bring in elements of nostalgia, for my generation an insight into a culture and a time we have no experience of and they're often entertaining albeit unintentionally!