Lots and lots to think about. It’s clear that this project still has a lot of potential, I don’t think that I will have finished it by the time that I submit for assessment but there’s still a lot that I can do between now and then.
My tutor had lots of questions, I’m going to try and answer some of them here before I go back to revise my project work.
Why did my audience think that the project was aimed at children? I wish that I had asked respondents why they thought this, it was at the exhibition so I can’t ask retrospectively. I’ve reflected on this at length and I think that most adults are conditioned to view a complete, finished product, and don’t expect to be asked to contribute. Narratives aimed at children are more commonly participatory. I think that this is to engage children who aren’t yet ready to sit quietly and be fed information, naturally they want to be involved. Most products aimed at children have an educational agenda, to encourage reading, creativity, understanding how a story is constructed so interaction is normal and encouraged.
My project is predominantly visual (its a visual communications degree) and I am focusing on illustrated narrative so I have kept the written element minimal. You will notice that in the various iterations (exhibition, online, etc.) I ask:
‘Where did the knitter go?’
‘What became of the knitter?’
‘What happened to the knitter?’
This was an attempt to make the question as open as possible and encourage a broad range of answers. (I failed because I talk about the knitter, they could have been doing crochet, carpet making, needle felting….) I’m asking for feedback on this but I think that I need to ask someone with a background in books. I didn’t think of many variations of ‘What was the wool for?’ but framing the question differently might have drawn a better response.
Could I have set up a poll online? That’s an interesting idea. I didn’t, and at this stage I would be worried that I would be shutting down any potential ideas by planting my thoughts in the mind of my audience.
Where else could I use this idea? My tutor suggested a treasure hunt scenario which would help to engage participants once they were there, my struggle at the moment is promoting it to the right audience. I really like the idea of pitching it to the Wellcome Trust and I will be preparing a proposal. It could be presented as a workshop in a school or care home, and there is a local cafe that runs a craft night, I wonder if they would be interested? Dacorum Creatives have an exhibition/workshop space in a shopping centre and I’m sure that I could present it there. When I have time I will make enquiries.
What about illustrating other peoples stories? I think for me the major advantage of this would be to have someone to bounce ideas off. I live alone and my dog isn’t any help. I’m very much an amateur when it comes to storytelling so any help with structure and ideas would be beneficial to develop the narrative. The downside is clearly there needs to be a creative spark/dynamic between me and the other person. I’m sure that some authors are very controlling and don’t want input in their work. Still I’d like to try.
How did this captivate me? Walking from my house to get to the fields is often boring, I walk past a lot of fairly dull houses so I’m always looking for something to add interest to our journey. Initially the hedge growing up was an irritation because it removed a spot of interest (I didn’t see the story at that stage) I was delighted when they cut the hedge back but disappointed that the wool was no longer there.
My tutor pointed out that we always see the house from a distance, no chance to peep in. That was because I was welded to my lived experience of the story. It’s only at the end that I’ve realised this (when I proposed an ending) I can see that a close up would be a good device to draw in my audience but it will have to be done carefully to keep their minds open as to what is going on. She suggested that thumbnailing might have helped this but I think in this instance I was just too close to the plot to see the obvious.
She also says ‘ I like the brown paper raincoat for the spy and the stuck on speech bubbles: could these components operate as assets for people to drop into the narrative?’ Could an element of collage add to the interactive potential and might that make the reader/viewer feel more comfortable to ‘deface’ the book?
I had never seen Storyjumper, which looks as though it could have been designed for schools but has real potential. (Here is another factor leading me to childrens book illustration although I’m still not convinced that my style is what current publishers are looking for)
Feedback has been a problem with this project. Tutor feedback has been the only serious stuff that I have had to work in. Does the way that I have laid out or presented the story affect this? Did I not create the right environment with enough time for them to relax? Are they worried that they will upset me. Are they just not interested? Or are they just not used to being asked to contribute to a story? Even people who I know who have good imaginations often failed to grasp what I was asking of them. I maybe I need to make some adjustments before I take it to a new audience.
The Issuu version is the weakest. It feels clinical and dead. It was extracted from the online version so maybe it sheds some light on why the online version didn’t have the impact that I had hoped for? Have I refined the life out of the story? I feel like the video is an essential part, it appears to shake things up at a point where the style of the story appears to have been established. I hope that it adds interest.
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