IDAT 101: Reflection and Evaluation of Installation

In my opinion, this term's project was an excellent example showing my example of planning and exploring many areas that I have never been introduced to before, even before university. This has also helped me prepare for when in case I do eventually do produce an actual installation, and possibly even when it comes to the placement year. The challenges this has brought to me and also my team-mates tested how we can (in theory) produce an amazing, immersive and fun installation in such small space (and the fact that the space can get even smaller at peak times, particularly on Fridays and weekends), whilst at the same time we can capitalise on the popularity of technology and the clubbing culture.

The idea of using sequencers, ambient lighting and addressable sensors (which in turn developed from the idea of using Processing and cameras to randomly generate content on a screen) in the installation caught my imagination the most, and that was when we then decided to incorporate these ideas into the project, and also do more research on these areas.

The success of our installation depends on many factors, most of which will involve complying with:

• The requirements of the client, 
• The demographic of the general public that is expected to interact with the installation, 
• And also the, limitations of space, technology and mostly important, safety.

For instance, the requirements of safety have been met by ganging cables with the correct tape and junction boxes, and by ballasting loose equipment onto the floor so then it will become difficult to knock them out of alignment, which would have otherwise compromised our installation. On the other hand, the requirements of the client and the demographic has been met by planning out our installation and using technologies that will mesmerise our audience, and also we decided to capitalise on the idea that the audience can create the music that they want to dance to, as well as allowing the rest of the audience to participate at the same time by dancing with the music, which in turn creates a computer-generated image behind the DJ booth and influences the lighting. Space requirements were also met, by planning the equipment around the given environment, and also bearing in mind the limited dimensions of certain nightclubs.

However, I also felt that there could be room for improvement, especially in terms of team work. After a while thinking about what our installation should be based on, and our environmental and contextual studies, we then went our separate ways to work on individual parts of the project, and then afterwards, we did not have many meet-ups apart from in regular Thursday sessions. We could have been a bit more pro-active in terms of group work and also we could have looked further into working examples. I also felt that a bit more research prior to the project could have been done, but when we went off to do the blogging, I then did more research about the technologies that are to be used inside the installation, mostly focusing on a particular core technology that was researched as part of an assignment for IDAT106. And if it were possible, in resources and time, we could have practically put the installation idea into actual practice.

But nonetheless, I think that our project has been successful, and with the help of team-mates, our ideas have come full circle and were fully thought out very well from the start. Also, we have met all the requirements that our installation demanded, which is an added bonus considering that had we not met them, our installation would not have been fit for purpose, and last-minute adjustments would have been required, which would in turn delay our installation, as well as perceived anticipation by both the client and the audience. The final result turned out very well, and in the future, I could even incorporate these ideas into something that could even equal a huge profit, both to myself and the hypothetical company. Overall, I have enjoyed working on the project and putting all those ideas into the final result, which then resulted in something very interesting and at the same time, captivating to the audience, the client and the developer.