12th April 2012 - Group Meeting at Danae's

Initially when we were aware there was to be a group assignment for this course Beck and I knew we would choose to partner up as we have worked together previously and done so very well. However, we decided to invite JC and Allen as we thought it would make for an intesting dynamic within the group as each of us has quite different personalities and varying skill sets. Beck and I had an interesting chat about this very topic where we had contemplated the various talents that we all bought to the group: Beck is very organised and we are both great with our artistic and conceptional skills; I am always being told what a talented writer I am; then we have Alen who is also good with conceptual ideas and very funny; then in conclusion we have JC who is apparently very good with media and technologies, which is obviuosly a valued skill for this assignment. 

We held group meeting at my place today with Allen, Beck, JC and myself. Although there were some very productive moments where idea generation seemed positive, there were moments where one particular member of the group (JC) tended to monopolise and try to individually control the direction we would take. Unfortunately this has been a trend from the day we invited him to join us, where the ideas of others are vitoed immediately, yet everyone is expected to support his idea's unquestionably. As a group we have bent over backwards to try and realise this individuals ideas, but any attempt at troubleshooting has been taken as the group negating his ideas. Sadly this results in everyone talking in circles, wasting time and being unsure of what it is we are actually doing. Previously, other members of the group have all had successful amicable working relationships in group situations and thus found this situation frustrating, combative and rigid.

Unfortunately when Beck and I met on the Tuesday 10th June, both fellows were unavailable to join us to discuss the direction for the final assignment on this date. Beck and I had scheduled this date before we had invited the boys to join us. However, JC had decided that because Beck and I had met without him and Allen, it was a direct attempt to sabotage him, which is ridiculous. Yet he chose to ignore the fact that we were all meant to meet and the two of them had cancelled and Beck and I did not want to waste a study opportunity. After the last class just before the holidays we had quickly discussed a few options for the group assignment which Beck and I began to implement because we were all agreeable.

These ideas were: to create a facebook group to interact with as an immersive collaborative approach; plus another idea which germinated with JC, was for us to hold an event where there we would have a selection of interactive computor stations set-up somewhere on campus for students to interact with various apps in a gallery type of installion with alcohol. When Beck and myself tried to discuss this as a possible concept we raised the point of possible pitfalls we may run into with this idea, such as needing a liquor licence, making application for permission to hold an event in the space (which location) and the risk of having no-one attend if not planned properly. Although we thought it was a good idea we were concerned of the potential danger of leaving it all up to chance and not following the proper protocols, which was his approach. We suggested trying to implement the same concept on-line to avoid many of these issues, as well as applying for appropriate permission so we were covered either way.

Upon discussion with CJ Taylor the previous week, he made the suggestion that we make a mock event, invite him and video it incase there was not enough interaction at the real event. We would then write a report and use this with the documentation to make a proposal to explain the legistics of such an event.  Executing this concept would not be impossible but could prove challenging and JC was adamant he did not want a mock-up, but the real event. However the harder we tried to realise this event and make it happen, the more defensive JC became. He took problem solving as critism and had trouble actually listening to what people are saying. However, when Alan also mentioned he had the same concerns and did not really understand what JC was trying to achieve, even after hours of going over and over it JC seemed to calm down. It was at this point we all endeavoured to come up with solutions and finally received some more positive collaboration from JC.

Anyway, not wanting to waste any more time, Beck and I attempted to use this time productively with some great input from Allen to assess how we might make everything happen along with brainstorming any other possibilities. Alan then suggested we send my alter ego out and film my interactions with the general public and then graced us with his own alter ego, which was certainly enlightening. Beck then made the further suggestion that both of our alter egos' go out on the town and that she would be happy to film the experience. Beck and I then shared some of the ideas that we had come up with during our previous meeting to see if we could flesh them out further. Over all we had four hours of production time and put some great stratagies in to place, assigning each of us various tasks to complete before our next class after the holidays. After a shaky start to the meeting we are hopeful that we have come up with some amazing ideas that will result in a successful project.