Final Exhibition

When we thought about exhibiting, we initially thought of exhibiting on the street, where we had started all of the protests, which was under the clock in Chester. However, because our exhibition has had a lot of impact, we thought that this might spoil it. Therefore, we decided, that instead of people going to the exhibition, that the exhibition would come to them. So we made it that the group would meet under the clock at a certain time, we wouldn't be there, we would be hiding, the group would then get agitated and then wonder where we are. And as soon as they think of moving on, we would come round the corner, holding our placards, and chanting, 'What do we want? An exhibition! When do we want it? NOW!' We chanting this until we approached the group, then put down our placards and our board of a variety of reactions photos and posters underneath the clock and left our group to exhibit it. With this idea, we were going for the 'after protest' look.

Second Exhibition

The second protest was stronger than the first which is what we predicted anyway, as we learnt to shout louder, spread out more and protest more unusual things. Also what helped was that our lecturer, Dinu, came with us this time and showed us to perhaps pick certain people to ask, who actually have a cause that they would like us to protest. For instance, we got talking to a lady in a wheel chair and we protested for her 'Up with ramps, down with steps!'.

First Exhibiton

Our first exhibition went really well. Firstly, there was a good turn out of people, which is what we wanted and which is what would make the exhibition successful!

Firstly, Sophia and I went and started chatting to some of the general public and to be honest at first, it was hard to pose a question to them of what we wanted without sounding too abrupt and therefore them not wanting to reveal anything. However, we got some good shots and one in particular was good becuase the man we asked had a sense of humour. 

Considering that this was one of the first we asked, we got a brilliant response. Exactly the kind of unusual and even pointless flash mob protest we are looking for.

Finding inspiration for where to exhibit

Today we went into Chester city centre to find inspiration for places to exhibit. As we had already mentioned to Dinu, our lecturer, that we had the idea of perhaps doing a flash mob, he then decided we should all practice there and then how to do one. Firstly, we had to lye on the floor of an indoor shopping centre and secondly, we had to perform a fake argument. This was brilliant to do and to practice, as it made me realise how easy it was and if your collaborative group are all joining in too, then your confidence is up and you don't even seem to worry. This definitely got me excited for working with a bigger group and doing something so diverse as this!

Met with other possible collaborators

We spoke initially about what happened in our last exhibition and we found that we scribbled down some initial ideas and when looking for an exhibition space, this completely changed. I think that the general idea in the meeting was to keep on mine and Natalie's exhibition A idea, that we could be in contact and collaborate with the general public, but push this idea, and what was exciting was that we could afford to with a bigger group.

We spoke about a number of ideas, for example, going out at night and photographing drunk people, getting permission from a nightclub or even just taking shots of shop owners with their shop. However, we then thought about documenting reactions from the general public, and maybe we could do something for them to react. Because we wanted to do something, rather than just photographing something, we came up with the idea of flash mobs.

So we researched flash mob videos on Youtube and got really into this idea of the 'not norm' and documenting people's reactions to this. For example Weegee's work. He has documented street photography of crime scenes or emergencies.

When two became five

I think that as Natalie and I worked so well together on Exhibition A, that some of our fellow peers were attracted to this, and therefore we were approached by Julie, Sharon and Sophia to collaborate with them in Exhibition B. I am very interested in working with other creative minds, so instantly thought that this would be a great opportunity for us to produce something big and really quite impressive.

I Love You Katy Stephens, The Exhibition

On Wednesday, it was mine and Natalie's exhibition. Outside the cleaners cupboard, we had a notice of what the exhibition was about. Then the exhibition viewers went into the cupboard, saw the A3 portraits of the people we met and then they shut themselves into the room to reveal the secrets. This worked really well, as people viewing the exhibition were so interested in what others had written and they were trying to match the secrets to the photographs.