Express

Collaborate

Media Literacy

Project Paragraph

Growth Paragraph

Physical Fabrication

Perceptions of the Poets is an interactive exhibit that highlights the dissonance between the public perception of queer relationships, and the perception of those within them. It does this through helping the user parse through the weight of public criticism to find the beauty that was enjoyed by lovers. Perceptions of a Poet consists of two window shaped boards with various cutouts separated by a glass wall. The windows also have blinds that can be pulled down to cover the window. As well as a basin containing tablets with clippings from various accounts of the Oscar Wilde sodomy trial (Newspapers of the time, tabloids, etc.), as well as some letters that were written between Oscar Wilde and his lover Alfred Douglas. One of the two sets of tablets contains some of the poetry of Oscar Wilde, highlighting his writing about love. The other set of tablets contains some of the work of Alfred speaking on his views on love. The tablets are each a unique size and shape, and have one of three colors on the back. These tablets each correspond to one of the cutouts of the boards. When the user places a tablet in its correct cutout the user on the other side of the glass wall can see the color on the back. The users can utilize both the color clues, and the silhouette of the cutouts to piece together the entirety of the boards. Together these boards tell the story that was shared in public discourse and public perception at the time. The user can then pull the blinds that are held in place above the boards down completely covering the boards apart from the few cutouts in the blinds, framing certain words. The words the blinds highlight will make quotes from Oscar and Alfred's letters depicting their love for one another. Thus allowing the user to see their relationship from the perceptions of the poets.

In this studio I was entering with eagerness to interact with primary sources on the stories we were covering. I was eager to interact with members of the community and use my skills to highlight their experience. However, working in such a large group made compromise inevitable. Despite my excitement with my own direction, many others didn't share my vision. This meant that I had to exercise my collaborative skills in order to assure a successful final event. Collaborative brainstorming with my partner, as well as getting feedback from coaches and guests helped distill my vision into a media analysis project. Having clearly expressed vision allowed all aspects of our final prototype to thrive. This included our physical fabrication. The clear direction that was created from our collaboration gave me clear deliverables and framing that resulted in a refined physical prototype, and a successful project.