Final Proposal for 3M Buckley Innovation Centre Commission

Here is my PowerPoint presentation I created to explain my final proposal to the 'judges' (University tutors). The imagery demonstrates my thought process I underwent to explore the theme of biomimicry for the 3MBIC commission. It includes a mock up of where my imagery may fit into the building, and many of my watercolour illustrations based on biomimicry itself.

Carla taylor powerpoint from Carla Taylor


Unfortunately, my presentation was not adequate enough to be short-listed for the commission and I never have or will get feedback to help me improve for future commissions. This was very dis-heartening as I expected some kind of critique especially with the amount of preparation I put into rehearsing the presentation.

However, I won't allow this to knock my confidence completely! I felt that my watercolour illustrations were effective and would fit better in a different context, perhaps an article about biomimicry in a magazine.

For those of you knocked back by situations like these, just remember, your work won't fit into every context and in such a difficult and judgemental industry as the arts, it is very much expected! I havent't let this get to me, so neither should you!

Second Visit to 3M Buckley Innovation Centre

As a course, we visited the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre for the first time. Even though I had already looked around the accessible parts of the building, this visit allowed us to view more of the room and the 'Innovation Avenue' on the ground floor.

As a group, we considered the questions on the Commission Checklist we created with professional practice lectuer, Lee Corner.

First, there was a presentation by the client herself, Liz Towns-Andrews. On the initial screen I noticed typography collage in purple, grey and blue tones which could hint at the colour scheme of the building/ company. The room where we sat (one of the commissioned rooms) was very spacious and light with bare walls. It would be ideal for a few large scaled artworks or several smaller artworks.

Once the presentation had begun, I picked on some main points presented by the client: 

• State of the art innovative work- present image of concept of 3M
• Different from any other enterprise centre that works with other businesses, partnership
• Recognised internationally
• 'Establishing in an 'ecosystem' to promote business growth, open innovation
• Access to supply chain networks- markets, finance, technologies and skills
• Networking exhibition space
• Workshops/ labs
• Meeting rooms
• 'Open innovation principle'- getting knowledge from different companies
• Innovation Avenue- dedicated equipment, complimentary to University- dedicated for business use; flexible access arrangement; presenting businesses with new technology; metrology- surface metrology

As soon as the main presentation was over, we were allowed to ask several questions. Here are some notes I picked up on based on Liz Towns-Andrews personal interests:

• Passionate- art, engineering, science
• Can use any media
• Crystallography
• Fractals
• Getting knowledge out of minds and into businesses
• Cloud computing- moving forward
• Social networking
• Fluid dynamics
• 3D printing
• Artist in residence-connection
• Biomimetics
• Art will not be permanent, perhaps a year
• Smaller pieces in meeting rooms, multiple pieces- triptych
• 20-30 works will be selected for commission
• Open to animation/ video- 3D TV could be used
• Sherat- pointillism
• Green technology
• Thought-stimulating pieces

After the client expressed her own interests, I was glad to know that she was intersted in biomimicry, a topic I had initially been working on beforehand. All of the information Liz provided was very helpful and it was made clear that the brief is quite open. After the talk, we were then taken on a tour of the building including some of the state of the art facilities used in 'innovation avenue'.

Photography taken on the tour around the Innovation Centre:

As I had already visited the building, it was very interesting to see what was behind the doors and discover all of the activities which go on inside. Although the main focus of the company seemed to be science based, I was sure that I wanted to avoid this route even though I had already chosen biomimicry as a starting point.

Overall, I found the talk helpful and will take aspects of the experience and apply them to my working commission to meet the needs of the client's brief.

Professional Practice: Lee Corner

To get us prepared for the 3M Buckley Centre visit on the 4th February 2014, our professional practice lecturer Lee Corner gave us some encouraging and helpful advice.

First of all, we were introduced to the Commission Checklist and discussed some possibilities that we might have to consider when communicating with a commissioner:

- Can't guarantee the client is the commissioner.
- Danger of chinese whispers (things could get mis-communicated)
- Ethos of building- what goes on? what are their values?
- 3M- ecofriendly, contemporary, growth, business.
- Find out their limits.
- What if personal ethos doesn't match clients ethos?

After much discussion, the whole class came up with a final Commission Checklist to consider when we go to the building:

• Space and lighting
• Fit to colour scheme
• Limits? Open-minded? Appropriate!
• Funding for resources- time/ money/ people
• Inside/ Outside
• What kind of people work there?
• Health and Safety- practicalities
• How many pieces do they want? Can we create multiple works?
• Size of work?
• Accessibility? Are we curating it?
• Long lasting materials? How long will it be up for?
• Collaborations?

We also decided on some questions to ask while we were there, and also things to look out for:

Questions (Don't ask questions you can research- show interest)

• Previous art work? Consider reaction/ repetition
• Are projections allowed?
• Size restrictions?
• After initial ideas, can we check health and safety?
• Will they or us be doing risk assessments?
• Interests? 
• How many works are they expecting?
• How many sites are available?
• How do we keep in touch? Invite them to the studio.
• When can we access the building? Curation?
• How long is the work up for?
• Who views it? Can anyone say no? Who is it?

Look Out For

• Colour
• Lighting
• Space
• Style
• Windows
• Existing objects
• Shapes
• Surfaces
• How it's used- who? How?
• Facilities
• Temperature
• Mood; feel of building
• Context
• Workers
• Noise- bleeding

With all these things in mind I feel prepared to visit the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre and take plenty of notes. A post will follow once the visit has been completed.