Coming to Pauls lesson expecting something different was a very exciting prospect. I myself have particularly enjoyed blogging my weekly research, however it became clear to me that others in the class were not and some of the blogs started to reflect this - so I thought it was a great idea to try something a little more engaging, that should lead to more interesting research findings.
The paper-based exercise was quite useful to me, as I found myself really seeking out great photographers within the bookstock. However, with limited time and limited resources (Group 1 seemed to have taken a lot of bookstock) I found it difficult to find a landscape photographer that I particularly engaged with. This also may be due to the fact that I dont really hold any interest in landscape photography, so the chances of me finding an inspiring photographer were fairly slim.Had the exercise been on, for example a particular style of portraiture, I would have had much better results.
The athens session was useful as, although I already felt confident navigating around athens, a number of other resources were explained to us by the very friendly library staff - some of which I will definitely look into using for future research.
The research material presented by other students at the end of the session seemed a lot more exciting than the usual blog posts. It appeared that most classmates had really engaged with the day and were finding better, more diverse research which they were more interested in - this showed in the work they were choosing to present. It is unfortunate that we didnt get to finish the presentation as it would have been interesting to hear students talk about thier new approaches to research and the changes it has made to thier results.
On the whole, I found the exercise very interesting - my research methods haven't varied too much but it was useful to try some new ways of researching. I think it would have been useful to all focus on one singular subject (rather than researching two things) in order to get some more effective results. One of the most engaging parts of the session was being surrounded by classmates in the library, all talking about the research they were finding - this was particularly inspiring and something that has been missing from the blogs.
‘Pulse Room’ uses 300 incandescent light bulbs, uniformed in a large open corridor. A sensor placed at one end of the room uses the participants touch to monitor heartbeat and this is then transferred into the bulbs and they effectively flash at the rhythm of the participant’s heart rate. Previous participants heartbeats are also stored in the system, each moving down a bulb when a new entry is stored. The reaction amongst fellow students was mainly a positive one, however I felt a more negative connotation to the piece. Some would argue Lozano-Hemmer is representing a sense a co-operation and community; all heartbeats living alongside each other as singular parts that join to make the whole. However the fragility of the slight glass bulbs spoke to me of the preciousness of life and how easily your bulb could ‘switch off’. There is also a sense of control and a strong link to how we are monitoring our lives using technology. We are tracking and evaluating something as natural as our heartbeat, using a machine to follow one of our most primal and natural processes. The piece also suggested to me a strange sense of almost repetition - although the bulbs were flashing almost intermittently, there always seemed to be a sense of rhythm to the piece. Are our own personal heartbeats really as individual as we perceive them to be? Or are we simply elements in a system, beating together in a collective rhythm?
