Diya Agrawal
Evander Wang
Jaime Santos
Niki Marathia
Sakshi Pansare
Vana Chowdhury
We went back to Reflection Garden to see it with fresh eyes and to gather materials we could use later in the project. We recorded sound clips of the city sounds that can be heard across the garden like footsteps, people talking, and St Paul’s bells. We also collected leaves, acorns, berries and flowers.
We looked at references related to dance and performance to get us thinking of how we could design a dance experience. Drawing both from the name of our location, and from our observations of people existing in the space, we felt that reflections were a motif that we wanted to be central to our project.
We felt that we could best portray the sensory attributes of our location through a film. We used the photography studio to shoot, with Evander behind the camera, Diya on lighting, and the rest of us on props and art direction.
I’m glad we decided to use the studio because during the many moments of uncertainty, confusion, and any awkwardness for having to dance, we had a space to experiment and laugh it all off.
We brought the project into the physical space by building an installation with the objects shown in the video. We wanted to create a bridge between our location and the world of the film, giving others a chance to notice what senses the experience stirred up for them.
Room for growth
This project was our team’s first time meeting each other and our first project on the programme. We collaborated really well overall, but sometimes found it difficult to work methodically. In the future, I hope to be spending more time doing research at the start of the project, establishing why we are approaching a brief a certain way, and ensuring that the team are all on the same page.