Failure Achievement Post

Reflection on my Creative Response Component

In the initial model of my creative display, the half-outlines of trees were meant to be carved out of single sheets of cardboard. I wanted them to have some height, at least 3-4′, so that they made a human-sized statement when viewed.

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After some initial scavenging, it appears that there is currently a shortage of large, rectangular pieces of cardboard being recycled. In response to this, I plan to find as many large pieces as I can, piece them together into rectangles, and then add bracing rectangles to one or both sides to ensure that the whole mass stands upright on its supports.

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This realization connects to the BBC article – Viewpoint: How creativity is helped by failure – in the following way: Andrew Stanton advises “be wrong as fast as [you] can”. There is no possible way to be wrong before the beginning of the actual art-making, so in respect to this idea I have certainly “succeeded” in my failure. 

I believe that this setback has the potential to underscore my point – of forgetting about materials after we have used them – even more strongly than if the tree-outlines were composed of whole sheets of cardboard. These rag-tag pieces very obviously tell that they have been discarded. In this way, they simplify the story-telling of the sculpture.

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