Reflective Journal: TESLA'S TIME MACHINE 20/10/18

EVALUATION OF COSTUME

The decision to wear a wig and paint my face with a lightning bolt was purely because I think hair and make up really help to bring any costume together. Unusual or different hair and make up allow you to create the illusion of another personality which goes hand in hand with costume. I wanted it to look a little like the plasma ball had flowed through the hat and into my body but I am not sure this came across. The chose a white wig because I thought if that had happened, my hair probably would've turned white. Overall I am not too pleased with the way that the costume ended up. I have felt very unmotivated and dissociated with university at the beginning of this year and I this had led to me managing my time badly and not putting the work into this costume. I didn't allow myself time for experimentation which meant I could not develop my vision into fruition. If I had given myself more time I would have incorporated more glow in the dark elements including more lights throughout the outfit. I am pleased with how the hat turned out though, as people at the event really engaged with the plasma ball and wanted to play with it throughout the night. However, the charge on the ball ran out halfway through the night, which was frustrating as obviously there was no USB plug socket to charge it. Practically the costume worked, I was very warm because of the layers underneath and I was able to dance and go to the toilet easily so that was successful. Both the jacket and the hat got a little destroyed during the night. To get into the different rooms of the event (not via the time machine) you had to duck underneath pallets so i kept knocking my hat off. The jacket sleeve ripped - probably because of bad stitching - but in a way I like this. It sort of symbolises the way that events like this - festivals and halloween and carnivals - are only a temporary celebration. Nothing is meant to last forever and for that one weekend or one night everyone comes together and it doesn't matter if material things don't survive. I also think its very fitting as the ripped jacket and broken hat just mean that my character had got caught in between times and the rips are just souvenirs from my travels in time. Sarah talked about in my tutorial whether this was art or whether it was a costume and for me, whilst I usually think that art and design are fluid and that there are no set boundaries, this piece doesn't push those boundaries at all. I feel it is a costume that had a set purpose for a set event. Is that the difference? Does art live on but design has an expiry date?

Arriving at the event it is clear something unique is going down. I feel completely and immediately immersed in a world where everyone's in various states of Steampunk-esque attire - some have stepped straight out of victorian England whereas others have just stepped off a spaceship from the year 3000. We pitch our tent in the disappearing light, the setting sun giving a sense of anticipation of what is to come. I walk past a grounded hot air balloon where I am greeted by security - a black and neon officer with a giant illuminated gun who tells me that I must place my wrist under the scanner in order to be checked and allowed entry. My photo is taken for 'security reasons', and I am told to be safe and watch my head when travelling through time. Ominous to say the least.

The set itself is bonkers. Made entirely of scavenged materials (the majority of which is wooden pallets), the curators of this awesome place have created Nikola Teslas dream world, complete with a Tesla tower, Tesla coils, a ray gun and a time machine. Moving between times is smooth as long as you have your time travel multi-pass (Fifth Element reference), which have to be carried at all times to ensure safe passage. First we go back to the wild west; an abandoned saloon where steam powered technology has taken over - a place full of weird and wonderful inventions, giant cogs and steam trains. I clock rickety looking stairs leading up into the Tesla Tower itself, where at the top we are assured that the fastest way to travel is via zip wire; a piece of rope is thrown round me and I jump into the abyss. Safely back into the time machine and we are in Teslas Lab, the Super Advanced Energy Reactor creating a platform for DJ's who play for those time travellers who want to dance; the remainder of the room exploring inventions from the future - a massage chair and a rather large ball pit. Across the room is a tea making station and a secret door disguised as a fridge; a corridor to another realm of UV lights, cinema and curiosities. Suddenly I am dragged back through time and out into the courtyard, where a giant robot is breathing fire from its fingers and a man in a lab coat is typing on a type writer that controls fire spurting from above. Next to this bizarre scene is a shooting alley, a ray gun firing nos canisters at tin cans at the push of a button. My adventures in time travel have only just begun and already it is impossible to imagine a world outside of this world.

LINK TO WALK THROUGH VIDEO: PFP

The Wild Wild West meets the Steam Powered Revolution

The typewriter that controls fire

Get your tokens for time travel

The fridge to another time

In a secret room was a cinema
showing back to the future

The neon lights had been stapled to the waistcoat and swirled out of the Tardis; the ultimate time travelling machine. The amount of costumes that had neon lights or other illuminative electrics in was overwhelming, clearly light is one of the crossovers between the past and the present

The light belt - a futuristic invention where the wearer is able to have light wherever he/she goes

An impossible to ride bicycle

Shooting canisters out of the ray gun

Graham - Having taken the Fifth Element theme a bit too seriously, he came as Korben Dallas complete with his taxi that had operational lights and brake lights. Made out of cardboard and old bike wheels.