The project was interesting in that we had to find an answer to the question “Why is this place called Elephant and Castle” and express it in an artistic way. I was excited to hear about this theme because when I first came to this place I was also curious about this. The name has no particular connection to the idea of elephants or castles. Therefore I understood that this would be an activity that would stimulate imagination and creativity, and I believe that through this activity I would get to know the place better and see it from a different perspective.
Working Progress
The first step to start this project was to team up with six people and then brainstormed. Each of us had different ideas, and that’s what I think makes this kind of activity meaningful, through communication and discussion we may come up with better and more thoughtful works. I also think our group members are very creative and all their ideas are interesting.
My idea was to make a sculpture, either out of clay or cardboard. Because I enjoyed doing arts and crafts, I like this kind of work. I think this will show the different ideas of each person and show the creativity of each person.
But after discussion, we decided to go out and interview people and ask them what they thought about the name “Elephant and castle”. We believe that games like board games or card games can enhance the relationship between people. This is exactly what we hope to convey, and we hope to pass on these stories about Elephant and Castle to more people.
Interview
The second part of what we did was we went out and conducted interviews. We went around the college looking for strangers to interview. I thought this was good training because I’m a bit afraid of communicating with strangers. However, with the company of the group gave me more courage to talk to people. Interestingly, I found that everyone had a different understanding of the subject. The most impressive thing I remembered was that two strangers told the same story about the king and princess of Spain at different times. I don’t know the reason behind this, but the coincidence was really memorable. After interviewing some passersby, we decided to interview some teachers and students in the school, and they gave us many creative stories.
Card Making
To design the product for our projects, we decided to choose 13 stories that attracted us the most. The reason for this is that the full set of poker cards is 52 cards with 13 different numbers. Therefore to achieve the idea of playing cards, 13 stories suit the best. With these 13 stories, each of us will take a few of them and draw them out in our own interpretation. It was a
To design the label of the playing cards, we decided to design them individually and share them with other group membered. The one we choose at the end of my design. I tried to make it simple but directly lead to the point of “Elephant”. The outline design of the card was coming from another group mate. She designed it based on the idea of “castle” I think it was really creative and fits our theme really well.
I think the way we discussed the design was effective because it gave everyone’s ideas a chance to be seen and everyone could explain their work, which not only allowed the person’s ideas to be better understood but also gave other group members the possibility to be inspired and coming up with new ideas.
Final Outcome
The following image was the cards I drew. The story that I got was about the Spanish king, the Spanish princess, and how a princess and an elephant are friends. I decided to include my own interpretation of the story that those people told. I tried a new style of drawing for those three cards, and I think I am quite satisfied with the result. The challenging part for that three-story is the Spanish king and princess because I need to include some Spanish elements, it took me time to do research and ensure that the elements I put in are relevant.
These are the final products that include all the cards that we made. It was an amaze when I see them put together. Each of us has our own style which implicated the idea that each of the stories is unique. Especially some of them includes color and some did not, this gave the final look variety and make it looks interesting.
To make our work more impressive, we also designed the back of the card. After the cards turn around, they will become like a puzzle that created the image of an elephant. And the Ace card will show the image of the castle. This helped to reinforce the theme and makes our work more attractive.
Final Outcome
To present our work, we videoed our cards and also the flipping process and added in the music, video, and also audio of the interviews. The reason that we did this process is to make this piece of work more complete and can effectively share with others in the class.
Overall, I think it was a valuable and memorable project that really helped my learning journey. Firstly working in a group, therefore it helped to improve my team working skills and how to communicate my idea with my group mate and decided on the final decision through discussion. Secondly, I really liked our final product, I think it was interesting and it did deliver the concepts we wanted to convey. We showed the possibility of art and how creativity has this much variety and also showed how everyone has the ability to imagine and created an interesting story.