Personal Exhibition - Conclusion

In all, the exhibition went really well.

I got experience of organising for an exhibition.
I learnt about some of the things that can go wrong if not completely prepared.
I got to network with local artists.
I got to learn more about other forms of arts and crafts.
I impressed visitors.
I promoted digital work to a more rural community.
I attracted clients.
I received invites to other events.

Although, I doubted that digital work would go down well in a small community like Midsomer Norton, I was very wrong. I got everything out of the exhibition that I wanted and would definitely do more in the future.

Personal Exhibition - The Exhibition

Friday (Set-up evening):
We had to set up late evening. We all brought the equipment to the exhibition and spent some time setting it up. Allister and Sally wanted to set up the interface when we were there. I would have preferred to do it beforehand in case we came across any problems but overall we felt the interface would be so simple it couldn't go wrong.
I had no problem putting my work into it but Sally came across a few problems. We solved her problems but we were there later than necessary and it looked a little unprofessional. Next time, I would definitely go with my initial concerns and prepare as much as I can beforehand.

Saturday (Day 1):
Saturday went well. Lot's of people came over to look at the work and we got some very positive feedback. There was an invitation to exhibit work at another crafts fair and talk of visiting a school to show the power of digital educational tools.
In the evening, there was a cheese and wine event for all the artists and friends to talk. We met some very interesting people and got to learn more about their work. We received a request from another artist to develop a yoga website for her.


Sunday (Day 2):
Sunday was quieter but it gave us more time to talk about our work to people and network with other artists. There were some interesting moments with more elderly visitors doing things such as trying to use the television as a touch screen. This showed me that when exhibiting, you definitely need to consider how that particular audience are going to identify with the work and how much help they may need.

Personal Exhibition - Booking equipment problems solved.

Today we had a very stressful day organising the equipment. In the end, we had to go and find the technicians supervisor ourselves to request a form because he could not (or could not be bothered) to find her. Luckily, we managed to find her just as we were leaving the University. She asked for us to sign for liability of all the equipment which was a little daunting but necessary. We happily did this and took out the equipment, ready to be installed tomorrow.
From this I have learnt that you need to organise things like this a lot more in advance with 3rd parties as they may not have very reliable systems.

Personal Exhibition - Booking equipment problems 2

Today we returned to the technician to find out if it was possible after all to take the equipment out without insurance and were told that he hadn't spoken to his superior yet. This left us a little frustrated and highly concerned. We have started to discuss alternatives to equipment if we can not get it from the University. If this was the case, we would have to use 3 of our own personal computers, a dvd player and television.

Personal Exhibition - Booking equipment problems

Today we ran into problems with booking the equipment.
We enquired to whether the request had been cleared yet and were told that it hadn't been put through yet because the technician no longer felt comfortable with us not having insurance. He said he would talk to his superior about it.
This caused a little uneasiness and we hope that the next day we will have more information.

Personal Exhibition - Booking equipment

This week we submitted by email, as requested, the list of equipment we needed to the University technician. This gives us just over a week for it to clear and for us to be given a time to pick up the equipment.