TEDx
OTHER ACTIVITIES
I was invited by the TEDx leaders to join their publicities team. We started working since October as the event was planned to happen in November as it did every year. However, in receiving approval from the central TEDx program, we had to reschedule the event and push it back to January. The extra time given did not give us the excuse to postpone on the preparation. Instead, the standards were raised and I worked hard with the team throughout the 4 months to make the event as memorable as possible.
Among the responsibilities given to the publicities team, I focused on stage design. I realized that while I could also work on graphic designs and promoting, I was not as proficient compared to others in the group. Conventional art making was my strength and favorite form of art. Therefore, I decided to not interfere with the graphic design aspect at all such that the rest of the team could also work with full efficiency.
The stage design work was new to me. Scroll down to the bottom or click here to read more about the process that I have documented in my visual arts process portfolio.
Several challenges I realized came up from the fact that I was working for another event and not just creating another independent art piece for myself. Therefore, a lot of them I had not faced before and struggled in tackling them. For an instance, after pondering on what I could do to be installed on the stage without obstructing the views, I came up with an idea to use string art. Though, I was also not certain where I could install it as there were different kinds of performances that might take up different areas of the stage. With this, I had to contact other teams of the TEDx organizers to discuss with them the logistics as well. As all of them already had many responsibilities in hands, it took quite a time for me to receive the information I needed. I proceeded onto finalizing my designs, and it was only after I was done that I was informed of the limited budget for the stage – an important point that I totally forgot to think about as I never had to consider it before when I worked independently. I then had to change my plans at a short notice. Another point I realized was that since my works tend to be more conceptual, they were not as for a stage design, in which the connection to the central theme should be more apparent. I learned a lot from this first time working out of my normal field and believe I would be able to improve and do better next time when I have another stage design work.
Despite my determination to not interfere with the rest of the publicities team who were working with graphic designs, I had also helped them as a member of the team in distributing the brochures and posters when they were done. Together, we went into town and put up several posters on different shops. I had had the chance to talk to the people and also invited them to come to our TEDx.
Seeing everything coming together on the actual day was one of the best feelings I have had. A lot of the participants were also people from town, which made me particularly delighted. The talks and performances which I did not have the chance to listen to before as I did not work directly with the performers were truly inspiring. There were a lot of issues addressed that drove me to start thinking about them. Some topics, such as schizophrenia or the current political situations in Hong Kong, particularly captivated my attention not only because they were topics that I had already been interested in but also because the speakers were my friends who had been directly affected by the topics. I genuinely admired them for being able to present to the entire school about such the difficult situations they had faced and also raised questions to the common beliefs of the society.
I deeply appreciated the event and the opportunity I was given to become part of the organizing team. In the end, I was proud of myself and everyone in the team who worked hard to make everything possible.
Below is my visual arts process portfolio which outlines the process of making the stage decoration:
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