Today is World Creativity and Innovation Day and what better time to celebrate it than when we're all having to be the most creative and innovative we can be to continue our practice at home. I thought the best way to celebrate today was to celebrate all of you and feature some of the incredible ways you’ve adapted to doing your work from home.
Personally I've been thinking of ways to get the shots I need for my Final Major Project and I've been using my daily walks to do so. I've been planning my routes around the shots that I want to get and combining it with my daily government-approved exercise. It’s been hard, at times, to find the motivation to work on my project, so having my camera with me whilst I go for these walks has helped to retrain my eye to find the kind of shots that I’m looking for in a different environment than I've been used to shooting in these past few years.
I’m not the only one who's been working this way… I've been talking to Extended BA's Libby Ward about her innovative use of her daily exercise and well as webcam photography to create work and the opportunities that have come from it. Libby, like me, decided to use her daily walks as a way to photograph the world around her at the moment. Her photographs of the eerily empty streets of Plymouth are a great documentation of the national lockdowns impact on our city and caught the eye of the local news, with a featured article from Plymouth Live. Libby has also been thinking outside the box when it comes to shooting with other people; whilst she can’t physically go and do shoots, she has been doing boudoir photoshoots via webcam, which I think is a great idea! Libby is currently sending out digital photobooks of her lockdown series to anyone who donates to one of her chosen charities, which you can find out more about here.
Libby Ward | Extended BA | @ipovphotographer
No shops open? No problem for Costume’s Emily Simpson who has been making her own clothes whilst at home to help her brush up on her tailoring skills! She’s also being innovative by using household objects such as the TV remote in place of pattern weights to hold down her patterns whilst she’s working.
Emily Simpson | Costume | @emilysimpsoncostumes
Similarly, Fashion student, Rebecca Sawyer didn’t let the lockdown stop her from making her swimwear collection one way or another. Instead, she took to her DS and created it on Animal Crossing!
Rebecca Sawyer | Fashion | @rebeccanaomifashion
Illustration’s Milly Richards has been telling me about the ways she's trying to stay motivated and creative during the lockdown, including trying to do a small drawing each day to keep her creativity flowing, even if she’s not working on her uni projects. Talking about the daily drawings, Milly said “I was mainly inspired by Ella Masters #ella365 project, I didn’t mean to do this every day but realised I was using drawing as a therapy. Just maybe half an hour a day where I could turn off all nasty thoughts about what’s going on right now and just draw! It’s also so rewarding with people keeping up with the drawings, sharing them, saying that’s exactly what they needed to hear. It’s one small thing I can do every day as a mini victory - even if it feels too overwhelming to do anything else.”
Milly Richards | Illustration | @millysdoodles
It's not just us artists getting creative with the way we're sharing work, galleries have started to find new ways to exhibit, including digital exhibitions and video tours, which can be accessed online. There's a whole range of work to see from artists such as Judy Chicago, Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo. Art Fund has made a great list of some to check out, which you can find here.
What about you? I'd love to hear more about how you're creating at home and how you're adapting to working whilst temporarily without access to the colleges' facilities, so do get in touch.
As always, stay safe and well!
Best,
Harriet Moore
Marketing and Enterprise Lead
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