Former Performance and Dance student University of Hull (Scarborough)
Performance and Creative Technology
The BOX
The BOX was the name given to a first grade, collaborative project which I along with 5 third year students designed, produced and performed for a final year university project. Performance
and Creative Technology (PACT) was presented as the only module on the Art and New Media
course that brought together students from several different programs of study and made it obligatory to assemble a working group that combined at least three different disciplines. These included specialisms in dance, live performance, digital media, sound and film production and creative music technology.
I feel confident in saying; the appeal to most of the students that embarked on this module was its intriguing, creative nature. By that I mean the potential objective that a sharing of knowledge and skill could obtain greater resources, recognition and incentive when utilizing fresh expertise that may enhance a performance/project idea.
Furthermore, concentrating on my personal experience when working on The BOX , The project team that came together due to a corresponding attraction to the idea, consisted of two music technicians, two theatre and performance students, one digital media student, and me, a dance student. The concept of The BOX involved the transformation of a familiar design, (a fairground simulator ride) and developing it into a theatrical performance. This involved building an actual simulation device that could be moved around the studio space with the audience taking their seats inside the BOX, thus experiencing the illusion that they were on whatever journey the inbuilt cinema screen displayed.
At first the group presented itself as a diverse collection of people, all equally willing to bring forth the knowledge and skills acquired from their discipline areas. On the other hand what I am inclined to say most students were not prepared for, was a collaboration of human, or should I say, “student” nature. As with any group work, I heard many stories from neighbouring groups that some collaborators felt they could sit back and enjoy the ride, letting those whose work ethic was stronger take on double the amount of work over fear that the final group mark would be sabotaged by the slackers.
However to ease this issue and what I personally believe to be the major strength of the module design came in the form of a Learning Contract. The Learning Contract allowed each individual student within the group to personalize their course of study, set out objectives, research activities, production activities and the weighting of marks focused on a particular area of study thus reflecting how much work you put into one‟s personal deliverance.
The guidelines were made very clear within the module hand book and having an allocated tutor at hand to discuss queries, and approve decisions was a definite bonus. My group met with our allocated tutor once a week which allowed us to clarify ideas and aims. It also allowed the
marking tutor to witness the personal triumphs that were accomplished by each individual throughout the group process.
I was the coordinator for the group, which involved organising productions meetings, group tutorials, recording minutes, relaying info through E mail, creating production timelines, booking rehearsal space, liaising with people outside the university body when needing to film in public areas etc. Despite coordinator making it sound like I was the one in charge, I never felt obliged to become a director of the production. The choices made about the designs, the film footage, the sound and the project make-up itself, were all collaborative decisions.
Having set deadlines in place due to the intense time scale of the course, allowed for good time management and with the learning contract in place it was easy for me as coordinator to assign people to set tasks in order to allow these deadlines to be met.
Despite all having designated roles, as stated in our learning contracts, we didn‟t isolate ourselves solely to them. It became apparent very quickly that collaborating was defiantly about give and take. For example, I spent an entire weekend painting the finished BOX simply because no one else was available due to commitments outside University, but the job needed doing in order to stay on schedule and be ready performance rehearsal the following week. In the early stages problems did arise as two group members were not „pulling their weight.‟ One rarely attended meetings and both failed to produce work to the deadlines I had set out in a production timeline. While the others in the group got annoyed seeing all their hard work being compromised by those who were not contributing effectively, I found myself becoming controlling and I fear to say, bossy.
So why was The Box collaboration process a success?
The learning contract was a great asset because it stated what each individual wished to be marked on so, if you‟d done your work then the marking tutor could recognise that.
On the contrary this is not what held the project together for the pure fact, Daniel‟s amazing film footage, would not have being effective in the overall performance if Chris and Dan‟s sound track had not being synced superbly well with it. And neither the film nor music would have being successful if Georgie and Mark had not designed and built the BOX to stage them in.
The one advantage we had as a working group was that we were all familiar which each other due to being part of the same degree area (Art and New Media) on a small university campus. This meant we were not meeting for the first time, were familiar with certain personality traits and there was no unease when coming together to work together. This may not have being the case if the module was conducted in a much larger University whereby the students had not previously met. Therefore I was unreserved when having to confront the two students slacking. I did not present myself angry as they would have laughed at me, but I showed my concern for their personal grading, made them believe a high grade was achievable for them as well as the others in the group and…… tempted them with a reward of a night out and a drink on me, simply because I knew that was what would appeal to the type of guys I was working with.
As Co-ordinator, if I was to change anything about the collaborative process I would have created a slightly more relaxed working atmosphere to suit the general nature of the group. For example having the group meetings outside an academic environment such as at the pub or in someone‟s living room, would have given an informal working atmosphere which would have
being much more appealing to those in the group whose work ethic been unsystematic and indifferent to that if I‟d have being working in a group who were more suited to a desk space in the library. I was privileged to be part of a group whose collaboration chemistry was agreeable. I am not sure if the success of The BOX would still stand if the individuals within the group had not complied with each other as well.
To conclude I firmly believe that having that pre understanding of how each group member functioned because we knew each other before hand save us a lot of hassle later. However learning what can be done to make everyone an equal team player, well that knowledge was only acquired as a result of the collaboration project.