I chose the Moving Tides Project as my SDP because I instantly knew that it was the kind of working environment and type of project that would suit me perfectly. It was creative, out of the workroom, exciting; it involved interacting with children and people in a professional environment. I also knew it would eventually give me an outcome and a reward for all of my hard work which for me I am quickly finding out throughout my degree is of high importance. This project has confirmed that I want to take all the skills and knowledge I will learn from my degree and use them in a situation where I will be able to work with others or give them some sort of pleasure. I want to work with people, all different kinds young and old but incorporating my love for costume and being able to create costumes with them or for some sort of community project.
I now, looking back know that I made the right decision choosing this opportunity and I pride myself in the fact that I know my strongest skills and what makes me passionate; I have confidence in the fact that when I graduate I will be able to make professional and personal decisions that will forward my learning and I will be able to take on jobs knowing I can do a good job and that I will work to my full ability.
My expectations of the Moving Tides project have been, I would say, pretty much fulfilled. I will say that my ideas and imagination ran away with me at the thought of a carnival in the first week or so as I imagined huge floats and millions of colours and thousands of feathers but I think that is a natural reaction. The process of brain storming, group tutorials where we would bounce off of each other’s ideas and developing my ideas with the Moving Tides Company, teachers and Adele was as successful if even more than I had expected. I really enjoyed the feeling of working as a team along with Adele which I did right from the beginning. I am definitely more a team player than a solo artist. The style of a working project where decisions were being made along the way by us and for us by Sarah and Adele meant I felt comfortable and in control throughout the whole of this project and I have really enjoyed that feeling of being on top of my work and forward planning enough in advance.
I think that I could have pushed myself more in terms the amount of work I have produced or handed in. I think that I have created a carnival design that is manageable for my class to work with for their age group but for them to still look effective. I could have gone further with my personal prototype and done more experimentation of ideas but because I was so sure of my idea from very early on I lacked in this. In some ways this is a good thing, that I thought of an idea and stuck to it but I still think I could have done some more experimentation.
I think that I have handled myself well during the project and produced a good body of work with my class at St Andrews. I have had good feedback from my teachers who have said that I have conducted myself well, run the class and planned my lessons in the same way any teacher would and really got the children excited for the carnival day.
I have learnt that I can organise and deal with organization well without getting stressed. I have improved on my self-motivation by getting myself into a routine of early rises and early nights so that I have the energy to get jobs done or a good amount of work. I was highly surprised by this as I expected to find it very hard keeping up to date with my blog or doing sections in my sketchbook but I have found that I have the ability to self motivate which will be a very useful skill to have after I graduate. I have also felt a huge step up in my self confidence and the way I present myself; I now feel I can talk to anyone with confidence and will be able to hold my own. This is reflected in my choice to put myself forward for course rep after shying away from this for two years regardless of my interest. This is another thing I would be able to add to my CV to help me gain a good job after I graduate.
