Face Off

By Millie Ross

In the final week of THIS IS WHY WE MEET, jotta asked the last two teams in the 6 week series to interview each other, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design team and Wimbledon College of Art. Wimbledon’s seven steps to becoming a more personable person were a hit, they give retrospective responses while CSM respond from the thick of creation fever.

Wimbledon, CSM, Wimbledon, CSM (Click any image to enlarge it)

Wimbledon College of Art responds to questions from Central Saint Martins

What was the thought behind your exhibition?

Consumerism, Propoganda, Cosmetic surgery of the personality. Inspirational moment was a recent trip to Vidal sasoon: where we were told we would come out 'better.' We were also inspired by the cliches of 'The Apprentice'...and any self improvement and mindwashing institutions.

Did you all know each other before you started this project, if not, how was it to work with people you have not worked with before?

Wimbledon is a very little college, and the nature of studying theatre means you all get involved in others projects a lot too, so three of us knew each other roughly, through various collaborations with paper and films and also through the Design for Performance Degree.

Did you encounter any troubles along the way, and if so, how did this affect the final outcome of the project?

Yes, many. We had to continually refine and adapt the outcome of the project as the week went on, and even after the private view. It was an ambitious project, creating the company entirely from scratch. We found we dedicated so much time to creating and making the products that the window display suffered at the start of the week, but it's on now and looking as we hoped.

At what point were you stretched beyond your elastic point and did you ping back to another direction that you didn’t expect?

Many points, lots of strecthing. Expectations pinging all over the place.

What has been the most interesting way you have engaged with those living and being in the area?

This weekend is our main time for face to face interaction, and more active convincing of our company, which will be interesting. We have observed peoples response to the video which has been amazing- many people don't know if it's real or not- whilst many have laughed. Creating something which people ask and are unsure of, "is this real", has been great, normally we don't have the facilities to do something like this so convincingly. It's been a lot of fun.

Has this project altered your approach to your work?

It has made us all more confident to do things we wouldnt normally do, realise we can take skills into other areas - product design, graphic design, directing, advertising etc. Our work on our degree has been more traditionally 'theatrical' possibly (see some at www.edithtsang.com and www.zoejosephine.com)

What are the positive/ negative outcomes of this project?

We are still awaiting the final result, to be objective about it all but thus far- Positives: Creating recreation, fruitful friendships, getting people to laugh at dominating consumerism/self help ideas/adverts
Negatives: Suspected Narcicissm, Possible Sound pollution.