Reflection

 

Individual
I was really motivated to make something cool this project. Although building an installation is not one of my preferred activities to do I was still excited to start. After we formed a team I had a lot of confidence that the project would go really well. The brainstorming part of the project was fun and exhausting at the time. I tried to think out of the box and come up with new ideas while staying realistic. I’ve learned to kill my darlings and let show my ideas without pushing my own opinion too much.
During the project I’ve learned a lot for the promotional and sponsoring part. First I had to find out the right way to contact companies and explain our idea. I like making small motion graphics so I used that to explain our concept. Writing emails to companies or calling them and sending invoices made me feel really mature. Besides contacting companies I also looked into marketing strategies for a campaign. I’ve read some articles that were really interesting and I found some things we could use for our own project. The promotional part was harder than I thought at first. At a moment I was so busy building and doing other things you forget that you also have to make content for the social media. Luckily I wasn’t the only one working on it, but it’s still more time consume then you would think at first. I’ve learned how you can gain followers and that having a consistent feed really helps. Making content was fun to do and I got some new skills according motion graphics which is really nice.
Besides the promotional and sponsoring part I learned a lot during the building process. I’ve never been someone who builds a lot and has a really good view of how things should be build. So at the beginning of the building process I was a bit in the back and I would do what other people asked from me. But during the project I was more involved in building the real installation then I would’ve thought at first. And the biggest miracle is that I even started to like it. Even though I have the pleasure of  having two left hands (I know Dutch expression) and no insight in building stuff I managed to build some parts of the installation on my own. They maybe aren’t the best building wise but I think I did a good job with the lack of experience I have.

On a personal level I learned a lot about myself these past few weeks. I had a learning goal about not putting too much work load on myself. Big luck I was in a team with all hard working people so I didn’t need to do all things by myself. This was really nice, but on the other hand a lot of time I had the feeling I wasn’t doing enough for the team. During the first six weeks I was incredibly busy with not only school but also other stuff. I’m really used to plan things on my own and I discovered during the project I really like to have freedom in when I want to do stuff. Because we were in school the whole time I felt I needed to work on the project the all time while I was busy with other stuff too. This caused a lot of chaos in my head and a lot of stress. I tried to be open to my team about how much stress I had but I also didn’t want to put too much of my personal stress in the project. Having this much stress and chaos in my head caused me to feel I wasn’t the happy energetic me I usually am. At some points I felt really bad I couldn’t bring more energy to the project but I just didn’t had any left at that moment. This was quite hard for me sometimes and maybe my team didn’t noticed but I almost had a some real break downs during this project. So yeah I have really discovered my personal boundaries in this project with the amount of work and stress I can have without having a whole melt down. I’m really glad I had such an amazing team this project with lovely and understanding people. This made me push through the hard times and they managed to make me happy even when I wasn’t at that time 😊

 

 

Team

For this project I couldn’t have wished for a better team. We all worked really hard, but we had a great time too. Having this dynamic is really nice and makes you even want to work harder.  Well I will now discuss all my teammates personal whaha.

 

Max
I have worked with Max in other projects which was a blast so I was excited to work with him again. Max was our scrum master this project. I think he embraced the role as a leader. He is a real team player and wants to work hard on the project. He was kind of the building leader and the programmer. This made him really valuable for the project.  His enthusiasm lifts other people their spirits which is really nice. Even with setbacks he managed to put on a smile on his face and saying everything is going to be oke. This optimism is a good characteristic but it can also be a pitfall. Sometimes Max could think a bit too optimistic about something which could lead too planning issues. But well this project is a whole learning process and having Max in your team great!

 

Sacha
From previous projects I worked on with Sacha so I know she is a really serious worker who wants to make everything perfect. She worked hard on our 3D models while learning a new program. I think this show what kind of person Sacha is. She is eager to learn and doesn’t hold back in it. Besides being busy with our hologram visualization she put the design document together. Sacha is a really ambitious team player who want to have the best result which is nice to work with.

 

Indre
Indre is a really goofy person. She is can be serious about the project one moment and the other she is her crazy self. This really lifts the dynamic of the team. Indre worked really hard on the website and the design document at the beginning of the project. She finished her website in time so she could help building or whatever was needed from her. Like Sacha Indre is really eager to learn new things which helps to make the project better. I’m glad I got to know this crazy fun person during the project 😊

 

Rania
I considered Rania sometimes as the mother of the group. She is really caring and grown up which is nice to have. Some of us could be like little children running and goofing around. Rania could get us little kids back to our work again haha. Well not only is she a good team player she also isn’t scared to try new things that maybe aren’t her best skills. She did a lot of research for our database which is really difficult but she managed to fix it! Besides the database Rania would always help you if you asked or give you advice, just like a real mom 😉 aaand she makes great Greek spinach pie or whatever it was.

 

Shtilyan

Shtilyan is maybe the most chaotic one of the team but also one of the most creative ones. From the beginning he really wanted to be the art director and work on the design of the whole project. He did an amazing job at creating our brand identity. He also would always remind you when you wanted to post something on the Instagram to keep the design document in mind so we wouldn’t ruin our grid. Sometimes it looked like Shtilyan was all over the place with his mind but that made him come up with new creative ideas or design. Having his creativity in the team is really nice to keep things fresh and never stop improving your ideas. He is a dedicated worker that will always be ready to help some teammates out.

 

 

 

Project

The day we formed a group feels already a year ago. As a group we already decided the first day we want to work really hard to make an awesome installation. Max, Sacha and I wanted to realize or giant harp from a previous project. The rest of the team was excited about the concept but we still wanted to brainstorm a bit. After brainstorming for a week we came to the conclusion to kill with pain in our hearts our precious darling and think about new concepts. After a lot more brainstorming we came up with the shape of sound. We started really quickly with sketching and prototyping. We also arranged a exhibition spot really quickly. Everyone had their own tasks to do and if someone didn’t had any he or she would help the rest or find something else to do. The first few weeks were really smooth and we got good feedback from the teachers. The building process had some more bumps in the road. We started building pretty soon but some parts took way longer then we thought at first. Especially the hologram was a big struggle. Cutting the Plexiglas was hard and gluing it was a challenge too. Also finding out the screens weren’t bright enough after all and deciding to use beamers was something unexpected. This brought some more work to do but eventually it worked out nice. Having setbacks isn’t nice but we pushed through and fixed the struggles.
The interaction was the biggest problem. Two weeks before the go or no go we changed our interaction form moving you hands to standing on the skateboard. Personally I wasn’t convinced at first why changing would be a good plan so I said they needed to come with prove it should work. Well they did so we changed the interaction. At first it looked it was pretty easy but the bugs didn’t go away which resulted in a no go on Friday. This was quite devastating. After working so hard it was really sad to hear we aren’t sure yet if we can exhibit. But we didn’t give up and worked our buts off to finish everything in time to get a GO. And we got our GO eventually!
I think we could have prevented this by starting to test the interaction way earlier. This way we didn’t need to do the most important part this last minute which will lead to less stress. After all I think we worked really hard together as a group and managed to think big.