Networking is a key part of this year, involving yourself in different areas, from working with an artist to doing a placement at a Gallery.
Over the past couple of weeks I worked with an artist called Nelly Ben Hayoun and her team in creating her piece that was part of the Science Festival.
I originally saw her work at the Designed Disorders exhibition at the cube gallery of the rocket chair, but sadly did not see it live. From a fellow student I heard she was looking for volunteers to help her put together her 'SUPER K SONIC BOOOOUM' piece for the Science Festival held on the MMU campus. The process of finding out how to help was quite exciting, especially when you got a reply asking you when you could start. I emailed my details of who I was and that I was a student studying Interactive Arts and would love to help out.
Not fully knowing what I was volunteering for, I knew it was a good opportunity and from images I had seen, I thought it looked really interesting to be part of. On the first day, I painted and waterproofed the bottom of the boat that was going to be used in the piece. At this point I found I still wasn't sure as to what 'SONIC BOOOOUM' was all about, I was just there to help out.
I went back to help the following day and met Nelly. She told me all about the Science Festival and how her piece she had created fitted in and what it was all based on. The piece designed by her was an interactive replica of a laboratory in Japan where they explore and find information about Neutrons. These neutrons are monitored and rarely make a reaction in which creates this giant boom, the 'SUPER K SONIC BOOOOUM!'. The idea was people travel in the boat surrounded by balloons which are in fact neutrons and are given a lecture by a Scientist as it is all happening around them.
When setting up the piece there was a lot to be done, one of the first jobs being blowing up 1200 Gold balloons. I was given a number of jobs to help prepare including:
Picking up speakers
Buying 6 pairs of Wellies
Buying Fish tank sealant
Picking up Gas Canisters
It soon became obvious how things can go wrong but can be worked around and how different people had different roles in the team into putting this large scale show together. As well we Nelly's piece there were other areas of the disused lab in which it was held, being used for different activities. The scale of it as a project was huge and came with so much responsibility. I met many different people who had different jobs, this was really interesting because it was from Nelly networking she was able to get help from different people with different areas of knowledge.
On the first day the Science Festival was open to the public, I had volunteered quite a lot and found from doing this I was trusted and a reliable volunteer. I was asked to be part of the show in which everyone is dressed up as workers in white over alls and helmets and I worked along side Nelly who played the chief warden, and instruct and direct people into the boat for their SONIC BOOOOUM adventure. The idea was the audience had tickets and were abruptly instructed by the chief warden to put on the overalls get into the boat, like they were at the real thing in Japan.
I managed to help out behind the scenes and in the actual piece which was brilliant. From volunteering also I found the piece quite personal in terms of I now understand how much work, effort and planning that goes into something that it only shown temporarily. From this experience, I feel I could contact Nelly again and see if I could work for her in the future. She was very inspirational and it was good to see how an artist brings together such a large scale, funded event. I felt I did get behind on my own practice but I hope to work with Nelly in the second term, so from this it has been beneficial and very enjoyable.
