Month: January 2023

Part 1: 22/23 MA Collaborative Unit: Projects Board

This week we had our first deadline, in which we had to submit our project (title, description and team members) to the Padlet Board.

Part 2: Project Management

As the project manager of my team, I also worked this week on organizing our tasks, assigning specific roles and also establishing our own workflow.

Fulfilling Deadlines

In order to fulfill our deadlines, I created a Miro Board where all team members can collaborate together, elaborate our concept and share our ideas.

The first activity I proposed was:

1. Come up with three keywords that represent our concept.
2. Try to think of a title using some of our keywords.

In this way, we could brainstorm keywords and come up with a description for the padlet board on time.

Assigning Responsibilities

Our team is divided into two areas: 3D Animation and Virtual Reality. At this stage, it was essential to discuss our roles and assign specific responsibilities.

Understanding the Workflow

Another important aspect of our collaboration project, is to understand our workflow.

So I divided our work into four parts:

1. Concept
2. Modelling
3. Animation
4. VR Environment

Keep the Team on Track

To keep the team on track and focused on their tasks, I will send weekly homework reminders.

In this way, everyone will know when their deadline is and also which tasks they have to fulfill.

The work is organized by numbers to prioritize tasks and keep everyone goal oriented.

Part 1: Meeting my Team Members

This week, I talked to my classmate Shizra and I was interested in her idea of developing an immersive experience in a post-apocalyptic setting. We went together to our second meet & greet reunion, where we got to meet the rest of our team members. We will be working together with our classmate Caroline and Neeti and Ria from the VR course.

In order to get to know each other and understand how our team is build, I asked some questions:

• What is the workflow of a VR project?
• Which softwares do you usually use?
• Do you have any interests you would like to develop?
• What are your strenghts?
• Which difficulties do you face when working on a project?

Part 2: Project Timeline

After getting to know my team members, I started working on developing a project timeline.

I planned our own deadlines in order to deliver our project on time and keep everyone on track.

Part 3: Gamified Collaboration

This week, we used gamified collaboration as a tool to bring together our classmates and work together as a group to solve different challenges.

1. Exquisite Corpse

The first game we played in class was the “Exquisite Corpse”, which is a surrealist game that engages people to work together on an artwork, such as stories or paintings, and invites them to unleash the power of their subconsciousness.

1.1 Exquisite Corpse: Drawing an Animal

First, we were given the task to create a collaborative drawing of an animal. Taking into account that the concept is figurative, the task was straight forward and easy to understand.

Everyone used their own drawing techniques, tools and colors, which made each artwork unique.

1.2 Exquisite Corpse: Speculation

Then, we were given the task to create a character that should reflect the idea of speculation. Since the concept is abstract rather than figurative, it was challenging to represent it visually.

However, we still managed to create a character working together as a team.

2. Coming up with Game Rules

The second activity we had to do, is to come up with some game rules for our classmates. This implied to come to an agreement as a team and also think of some rules that would be interesting enough to keep the players engaged.

2.1 The Pumpkin Game

Shizra, Jonathan and I came up with a simple game, in which the player has to take a selfie, replace the head with a pumpkin filter and send the picture to a friend.

Part 4: Collaboration as Decentralized Labor

The two activities were useful to portray in a ludic way how collaboration can be seen as a decentralized labor. These games can be perceived as a reflection of how we are supposed to interact with our team members in our collaboration work.

Rather than working on one task by our selves, the labor is decentralized since many people work together to fulfill one brief. This implies that different disciplines, skill-sets and artistic techniques come together to work together on one assignment. In addition, we should try to determine what our strengths are in order to get the most of our work.

Introduction

This week we got an overview on the collaborative unit, the assignment brief and the goals we need to accomplish as a group. We also had an event where we got to meet the course leaders and students from the different courses we are going to collaborate with. Furthermore, we were also asked to start thinking of potential ideas for our projects and choose one topic of interest from the meet and greet padlet board.  

Part 1: Sharing our Ideas

During class we were asked to share our ideas on a Miro Board as regards our views on working in a team and collaborating with people from different courses.

1. Why do we collaborate?
   We collaborate to bring together different skill sets, share our professional expertise and learn from our colleagues. In addition, if we determine our strengths within the team and create an organized workflow, the tasks are carried out more efficiently.
   
2. How to approach to collaboration in a group?
   Transparency and communication are of utmost importance when it comes to collaborating in a group as we need to share our strengths with our colleagues and give critical feedback on our work. We also need to develop organizational skills as the work needs to be delivered on time.
   
3. How can we create a piece of work by collaborating with different disciplines?
   First, we need to understand the workflows of the different artistic disciplines. Then, we need to create a project timeline, where we split project milestones and establish primary and secondary objectives. Finally, we have to assign responsibilities to each one of the team members and also monitor if everyone fulfills their tasks on time.

Part 2: Social Meet Up – Event

After our class on Wednesday, we went to the Lecture Theatre B to meet with the leaders and students from the other courses we need to collaborate with. Some of them are:

• MA VFX 
• MA VR  
• MA Animation 
• MA Games Design  

We were encouraged to play rock paper scissors at the canteen in order to start a conversation and get to know each other.

Even though I managed to almost lose every single game, I did socialize with some students from the MA Animation, MA VFX and MA Games Design Course. We added our contacts on Instagram and I am looking forward to meeting them next week.  

Part 3: Meet & Greet – Padlet Board

Next week, we are going to meet again with the students from the other courses, so our course leaders asked us to choose a topic on the Padlet Board to team up with people that share the same interest.   

I chose the subject Utopia and Dystopia, since I am specifically interested in dystopian fiction as it is a way to criticize a negative aspect of our society. I would be interested in collaborating on a project that creates social awareness of a conflict or problem that needs to be addressed immediately.