Results of the Group Critique

Now that our project has ended, we took part in the group crit to see how others perceived our work and to help us to work out whether our piece communicated the concepts and themes we hoped it would. Here are some notes taken from the session on our piece:

• The group almost straight away noted the obsessive nature of the piece. This means we communicated the character behind the CCTV/voyeuristic footage quite well through the installation and video.
•  A theme of paranoia was also noted, with the group wondering if the security cameras within the room were guarding the space or simply the gadgets the character might use to practice his voyeuristic hobby.
• Spying on women was a theme the group thought quite obvious from the piece. This was pleasing to hear, as we took this from the way Renoir used to watch women for his paintings, but with a modern and sinister twist.
• A few people suggested the character might work with CCTV but uses his power to support a voyeuristic hobby.
• Members of the group who entered the installation noted that the cameras and webcam made them feel as though they were intruding.
• The general thought was that the character was sick and repulsive, due to the rubbish, soiled tissues and bottles of urine within the space. However this was also suggested to be due to the fact that he never leaves the room as the hobby takes over his life. We were really pleased when this was suggested as it summed up what we wanted to portray precisely!
• People thought the piece could be about an obsessed ex.
• Interestingly, everyone assumed that the character was a male.
• Many stated that the piece seemed to be an accumulation of time, as though looking back over something. The video anchored these thoughts.
• It was also suggested that the piece was a statement about technology and how it is supposed to be there for safety yet can easily be a danger if it gets into the wrong hands. This was really interesting to hear and linked well to our theme of surveillance.
• The group mostly thought that the character has no right to privacy due to the nature of his supposed hobby.
• The clock hanging down helped to enclose the space. It was also said that the piece was interesting to look at from many angles, as though peeping inside the space from different perspectives.
• Some improvements that were suggested were that we could put more thought into the components of the piece. For example, instead of random rubbish within the space, restrict it to create the character's favourite foods and drinks etc. To really make the character come to life. Our group agreed with this and we all thought that perhaps if we had a little more time or didn't chose this idea quite late on the project, this might have been achievable. 

Overall we were all really pleased with how the piece was received and accepted any criticism with gratitude, as it taught us how we could improve on our work. We are looking forward to the piece being open for exhibition and are quite sad the project is now over!