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Since transforming my mind into a genius conceptual artist, I am ready to take a break and focus on reflection. The Manhattan Project is often overlooked as it doesn’t seem too significant but without it we would be living completely different lives greatly affecting our politics, culture, and most importantly our technology which was my focus to demonstrate in my art. By concept, I think my idea was well thought out (which was the dominos representing the chain reaction of atomic events) but it was shown poorly and I would need to find a was to evaluate where to spend my time. I held onto the idea of making it interactive and I liked the idea of using dominos but my concept didn’t work well with the piece in the end.
If I were to become a conceptual artist, I would have my main focus on my concept. What I had done for this winter exhibition was thinking of what I want my piece to be. Which was interactive and fun without a good idea for what that entails. After visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery, I took inspiration from some of Yoko Ono’s interactive pieces which was my biggest mistake as I held onto an idea I had in my head without the concept behind it. Limited on time, I rushed to find a meaning behind my piece without any careful consideration. Being attached to an idea was my biggest flaw and I really would need to take a step back for next time and spend a majority of my time trying to understand what my concept is, and only then I can move onto how I can show that idea and keeping in mind how the viewer will perceive my piece of art.
Being at the exhibition is a great way to see how the viewer will interpret the art and for my case, if the interactivity of the piece is clear. I had many people talk to me about my piece without reading my artists statement. This caused many to not fully understand what I was going for which made my piece seem rushed or lazy.
This brings me to my final point which is creating drafts and drawing your art piece to ensure good built quality and no last minute glueing and cutting paper. Multiple drafts and refining your idea through trail and error is something I wish a found time for. There’s isn’t a worse feeling than presenting work you’re not proud of.
Despite my negative thoughts towards John Hersey’s “Hiroshima”, it has been a great way to fully understand what the Manhattan Project was able to