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Evaluation
I have now set up my final piece, after testing out cool boxes and mini fridges I finally decided to use a table top freezer as that really is the only way to keep the books in their icy state for as long as necessary. I placed the freezer on a table with a sofa facing it so that people could sit and read the books if they choose. I also put down a rug so that when people read the books and the ice falls away from the cover it can fall safely onto the rug and be soaked up rather than creating a hazardous slippy floor.
After looking into the way interactive and installation art is displayed and exploring information with art in my essay this year, I decided to put a small instructional panel on the freezer.I kept it brief so that viewers of the piece would know that they could open the freezer and take out books, and also get a vague idea of what the piece was about (the books being in a paused state). I decided against displaying a full artist statement or explanation of the concept, because I wanted viewers to have their own interpretations and not force too much information on them.
in my proposal I stated that I wanted to look at the way objects such as books can be active or inactive, i.e.books are useless when they are being read, they are only an active object when being read. I aimed to explore this concept by looking at how objects that are not in use can become sculptural,and so I looked at fossilization weathering,and covering books in clay, and eventually freezing which I used for my final piece.
I feel I fulfilled my aims in my proposal well, and visualised my concept successively through my final piece. Using the freezer and icy books to show how the books are paused and purely a visual object when not being read,then they are active when they are being read, and then when someone stops reading them they are returned to the freezer and become inactive once more.
Overall I am happy with my final piece, I think visually it looks good, and explores and interesting concept. Some of the books didn’t turn out as I planned, with the ice not attaching well to certain books, however they still had a thin icy layer and I surrounded them with crushed ice once in the freezer so I think they still achieve the look and feel that I wanted. If I were to develop the project further I could look into putting the installation in different situations such as in a library.