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so er, just connected my blogger to my google+. will this appear on both now or.....?

Porno*Graphics Exhibition

Rumour has it that the exhibition a group of us 2^nd year graphic arts students recently held at the crypt in the Contemporary Urban Centre (aka CUC (lol)) wasn't originally meant to revolve around the theme of porn. This is, of course, before the name was decided on.
No, apparently that was down to a miscommunication between James Falkingham and Jo Wilson, whereby Jimmy expressed his desire to exhibit some 'sexy graphics'. (They are probably the two who did the most work in organising the whole thing. Thanks guys, sterling job!) Ah, serendipity :)

One of the things I'm most impressed with about the whole process of putting the show together is the use we made of facebook – good move! The porno*graphics event group page was alive with a disgusting torrent of inspirational imagery and film, appropriate (and inappropriate) songs, and many many works in progress. Along with the attention-grabbing theme and welcome distraction from uni work, I think the constant updates on fellow exhibitionists' work was a key factor in the amount of time and effort everybody put into the show. It was exciting to see everyone getting their teeth into a subject matter we all apparently have a wealth of knowledge on, with outcomes ranging through cringeworthy, unsettling, beautiful and downright hilarious.

Various adverts were used to get the word out. A few different options were created for a poster, the chosen design being Dave Maguire's. It was posted around uni, as well as in shops, bars and cafes around Liverpool. We also got a quarter-page advert in Bido Lito. After emails were sent out, we were given a mention in the blogs of Article Magazine http://articlemagazine.co.uk/2011/03/pornographics/ and JMU's Art and Design Academy;http://www.liverpool-ada.co.uk/2011/04/porno-graphics/.

The show itself proved to be a much bigger success than I think anyone was ready for. Far from it, the crypt was packed, and everyone was clearly having a laugh and enjoying all the visual treats on offer. I was amazed at what it turned out we're capable of organising, and there has been talk amongst the students of putting on more shows – watch this space!

The WOW process, and Teamwork

WOW. World Of Work. Not as much fun as the other WoW, but then again this one hasn't stolen a month of my life. A while back we had an introduction to this Dynamic new aspect of our lives (I tend to raise a sceptical eyebrow at anything Dynamic), which would teach us how to better present ourselves to the world. Of Work. Think of careers planning, but for people who kind of have the career bit decided on. For me, the main part of this has been the Virtual Interview, brought magically to life by an animated lady, who kindly reads out the questions written on screen with almost adequate clarity (presumably in case you fancy a challenge).

I actually have some things to thank this lady for. For a start, the procrastination her interview produced has cleaned my kitchen, restocked my food supplies after a winter back home, washed my clothes, and rekindled my love of Happy Wheels (www.totaljerkface.com/happy_wheels.php). On a more serious note, when I forced myself to sit down and think my way through the more challenging questions (I actually DO have personal values. Who knew?), I came up with a few answers which, I admit, may well be useful in a real interview with a real lady for a real job some day. Another thing made clear by this is that the six months I spent working at Pizza Hut don't add up to much of an experience. Go Figure.

This post itself is the second part of the WOW process, a reflective blog. And aside from the virtual interview with the fake lady, I'm going to reflect at you my experiences on the group project we were assigned as a class, and a module. And a Unit.

We were given the task of branding a conference taking place next year at FACT, Liverpool. The conference is called Rewire 2011, and is the fourth annual conference on the history of Media Art, Science and Technology. We were asked to produce a logo, type hierarchy and letterheads and things to get the image established before the call for papers. (A website has since been constructed, which you can peruse here.)

The group aspect of this consisted of two parts: A meeting held to finalise the chosen logo, and the distribution of tasks after this, such as ideas for website colour schemes, letterheads, the appearance of the logo on screen, etc. Throughout the process, several ideas occured to me, upon which I will now reflect...

#1 - Groups are slow.

A piece of work given to an indvidual will more or less get done. A piece of work given to a group will be discused, criticised, analysed, planned, and left for someone else to do. As a first attempt, I like to think of the start of this project as an important lesson, that groups of peiople need to be organised. I suppose this is how managers were invented. Maybe in future group endeavours, we should appoint team leaders, secretaries, managers, CEOs and other bureaucrats to ensure work gets done on time and by everyone.

#2 - Groups are unreliable.

A piece of work given to an individual will more or less get done. A piece of work given to an individual as part of a group may or may not get done. This is because, as part of a group, an individual may think that if they don't do their part, someone else will. Luckily in this instance, this was the case and a couple of people worked late to get the job done. Hoorah. I suppose this was kind of two thoughts - people might slack off, but at least there are others to pick up said slack.

#3 - Groups are more likely to find the right solution.

There were somewhere between 15 and 25 people involved in the project, each of which came up with their own ideas for branding at the beginning. This gave us a lot of ideas, from which the client chose their favourite. Then, we edited and expanded on this idea as a group, coming up with far more work than any one of us could have done alone. And over the Christmas period we've all been able to step back and take the credit for what we've done. Lovely.

So there you have it, some reflections on my employability being forced from its shell, and on my first project for a real client, as part of a collaborative effort.