Evaluation of unit X.

Being divided into groups of people that I did not no did not really appeal to me in the beginning. I felt as though I was being forced to work with people that I would not usually be drawn to, but I was willing to accept this and use it to my advantage.

I felt as though working with fashion students would perhaps open the door for creating work with a fashion vision that could marry seamlessly with my textiles work. However, working with film and media seemed utterly pointless. This isn't a reflection of the people that are on the film and media course, but an issue that I feel that the people who organise unit X need to reassess this. They are not creatively lead people who are constantly using the design process that TIP and Fashion students do which was soon to cause some difficulties within the group. I accept that it was not the film and media student's fault that they did not understand some of our initial concepts but they did not help matters by barely being involved in any of the group tutorials or sessions that were organised for us or internally by the group via our Facebook page.

It soon became apparent that the Fashion students felt as though they were in control of the group. I understood that there was a greater number of Fashion students so it seemed that they would be in control, but this is not the way that a collaborative group should interact. It felt almost immediately that my ideas were being overlooked and I feel confident enough to say that it was not due to the quality of my work (above).I don't feel as though the group appreciated that the work that I had created was both time consuming and meticulous, like the cut letter series.

Regardless, I attended meetings regularly and managed to convey some of my ideas and learning to compromise is definitely one of the skills that have improved greatly within the past 8 weeks. Another skill that has developed is that I have learned to convey my opinions much more diplomatically and probably more professionally. Usually, I just speak and I am unaware of how things may sounds, but I feel as though I have developed my communication skills and can speak much more neutrally.

Towards the end of the unit, my biggest challenge started to emerge. Being practically ejected from the group meant that I had to make a quick decision and take control of the situation. I learned that I needed to trust myself with decision making and I knew that my previous units displayed my ability to work alone. It was not an ideal situation but I felt as though I had managed to turn it on it's head and turn the very frustrating situation into a positive.

The time in which this situation arose also meant that I needed to make decisions quickly and decide on the most time efficient way of creating work, not only work but to the standard of a final piece. Developing my own final piece has meant that I was unexpectedly in charge of planning, logistics and the manufacture of my final piece which was also hung independently. 

Working as part of a group may have taught my some lessons and allowed me to progress in terms of voicing my opinion and making sure that my ideas are heard and noticed. Even though I was furious that in the end my ideas had gone unnoticed, perhaps it was in fact a blessing in disguise and it forced me to turn a pretty awful situation into something that saw me work well under pressure, right through from design to the manufacture and display of my work and to a high standard (right).

Overall, I feel as though I have learned to trust my own judgement and to allow myself to believe in my own ability. Even though time was tight, I knew that I had to pull it out of the bag. And I feel like I did.