Education - Combing Work Development

One of the main concepts we took for the original pieces was the ideas of putting your hand up, something that featured in two of the three pieces. There was a number of ways in which this was presented in the original pieces; firstly there was the robotic abstract way of raising your hand, and then there was the actions of raising your hands and that being pulled down by others next to you. We decided to use both of these elements. The robotic raising of hands was improved when Ben suggested that our actions resembled a machine. This enabled us to develop it by incorporating a sound scape that went with the raising of the hands. Also helping us to create a rhythm so we were more able to carry out the gestures in times with each other. The sound scape enables us to build another layer to the picture in which were trying to create. The ideas around machines involve continuous work that is repetitive without any room for individuality or personalisation. These are all themes which we are trying to communicate and therefore by adding the extra dynamic of the sound scape the message become clearer giving a greater impact.

Something we all agreed we needed to have in our piece was the section from one of the other groups where they were unable to spell any creative words but could easily spell funding. The issues this pieces touches on I loved. I think its so important to look at how the welfare and growth of young children isn't always top priority. As someone who watched their carefree abstract primary school, although it had a bad ofsted, turn from a creative hub into an 'ark academy' when students were a blazer and shirt type uniform from year 1 onwards and take mock exams every term I was proud to include something on this topic in our piece. This was really good for me because i was able to use what i have experience to connect with the work were creating and therefore allow more truthful and passionate feelings to surface during this piece.

What I loved about the sequence they had created was how they had managed to include the message within a class setting with us a children. The ideas presented were clear and simple just as they would be in a primary school class, making the audience feel as if they too are a part of this class setting potentially reminding them of what it was like to be a young person in school at our age. Our closing sections, depicting the militancy of some school was devised as a group and didn't come from the material we already had. The key aspect to this was the sounds in breath and voice that went with each gesture. This was helping us to communicate the feeling behind the actions. For example the tucking in of a shirt was done on an in breath and the pulling down of our skirt was done on an out breath. The sharp intake of breath resembles that which you might do if you were trying to put on something that was too tight for you around your waist, already starting to communicate a message of being uncomfortable and forced into the uniform. the sharp outtake of breath also conveys a panicked or quick action, thus starting to outline the rigidness around these rules.