So amidst the work we're doing for our upcoming school project we had this presentation in front of the class to present our primary research, it was mostly about the things we dislike. To put it short since I'm always so complicated and sometimes tend to spend TOO much time preparing visual material and over thinking 'Is this right or wrong?' this time around I made my work quite obvious, instead of working in a conceptual way like I always did in the past and creating personal links to the theme, I decided to get a hold on myself and try working in a literal way -like I always see my classmates working-, for example f I get told to work -random theme- on flowers, while my classmates would get obsessed with recreating the shapes of the flowers, the volumes, the colors, I'd totally start to question myself over and over again what flowers mean to me and I'd probably end with something that at first glance wouldn't look inspired on flowers at all.
Honestly this new way of working is not as easy as I thought it'd be at first, I'm having massive headaches because I want to work in an obvious way but doing so without falling into predictable is harder than expected.
Anyhow the reason why I'm writing this post is just because I have this 'problem' stuck in my mind. After the presentation we were supposed to get feedback from our classmates about our ideas, I have to say that I'm not really the friendliest person with my classmates, there's just some kind of aura that I haven't been able to overcome during the past two years so our relationship is more likely to be plain and superficial,that of course with the exception of two girls who for some odd reason hate me, I haven't even -not even once- spoken to them so I'm guessing that they believe I should have made more of an effort to appeal them after they incorporated to school last year? -sorry this is starting to look like a complaint- but well, to put this straight I read the feedback from my classmates and it's sad these two girls were the only ones giving me negative feedback, but the fact they criticized my work doesn't upsets me, quite the opposite the fact that they didn't even pay attention and then decided to criticize my work is what really annoys me.
'I don't understand the move from bright colors to yarn? NO LINK. Knit would be a cool thing to work with'
Dear lord, I've heard of mean people but this is just stupidity trying to be disguise as 'positive criticism'. I don't even know why I'm taking this so heartedly -I'm guessing the lunar phase is getting me LUNATIC- but I just hate when people don't even take some time to hear. I remember quite well I explained 'I have two different directions I'd like to work with' I never said yarns and bright colors had any connection whatsoever and the work was not about connections either, it was about the possible directions our project would take after the research. I'm probably mentally too old for my age because it sincerely alarms my how childish people -specially grown ups who are even older than me- can be, I know it's impossible to get everybody to like me and my work but I wished that people would give me at least valid criticism like I did, it's a shame some folks can't separate feelings from work, which takes me to the real reason why I'm writing this. With that 'eventful' experience I got to realize how also I'm sometimes too temperamental and how unimportant stuff can be so much of a tether on my creative way, I'm the kind of person who believes about energies coming from our souls and I must accept that all that meddle of emotions -anger, annoyance and even misery- made me feel like my energy was stolen away. Basically I made no point in this entry but I needed to write it so hopefully I could get it out of my head, I even thought about it while showering and that's a little bit insane, of course add it to the annoyance of washing my hair twice because I didn't realized I had already done it previously.
The picture, well, I choose the most 'valuable' critics, honestly most of it was nice to read, it gives me a deep insight of what I can improve about my work.
First off, your interpretation of how the theme or concept affects you (in my opinion) is the better choice then trying to present the topic in the literal sense. The more "you" that you put in your outfits, the more authentic and real it gets.
ReplyDeleteI also got upset quite easily by constructive criticism; when I took my creative writing class that was always the thing I feared the most was having to read other people's opinions of what they thought of my writing, which for me is always a personal reflection whether I want it to be or not. And sometimes I would get feedback that just didn't make sense, or I just simply didn't agree with. And you know what I did with it each time? I put them into two categories; one for other writers in the class that I've read their work and loved/found inspiration from and after hearing them discuss during class found a sort of respect for them even if our ideas were different, and one for the other writers who aren't bad per say but that I never agreed with nor saw eye to eye. It's not a bad thing, but it just means that I only took the feedback of those who I respected. If you don't like/respect those girls then don't take their feedback, focus on only the positive or negative from the people that "matter" --> but most importantly, stick up for what you believe in with your concept or design because your opinion matters the most of all.
Like Camilla said, the only thing that matters is what /you/ intend to interpret. If those girls don't get it -- purposefully or otherwise -- that's their issue. Everyone's ideas are different and, honestly, not everyone is going to understand them; however, I think it's more important to realize your vision. Go for what you believe is the best interpretation because, in the end, isn't it up to you? I mean, it's YOUR interpretation, right? You're always going to get people that like to knock you down. The best thing you can do is take their feedback with a grain of salt. Not everyone is going to like what you do, but some people come from a better place when critiquing your work. If you believe their criticisms mean something, take it and work with it to try and better yourself and your future works. If you believe they aren't, then just take it, acknowledge it, and move on.
ReplyDeleteDoes... that make any sense?