In the lead up to our 2018 MA Summer Show opening on Friday 7 September, we’re catching up with current students to find out about their experience of life at Chelsea and how their summer show work is coming together.
MA Interior & Spatial Design student Eloïse tells us how her practice has developed during her time at Chelsea and what she’s currently working on:
“Over the course of the year I have become much more of a maker and experimented a lot in my projects. I am working on my degree show at the moment, building the structure for my installation piece and designing my portfolio. The structure is an interactive sound installation, which is designed to allow people to experience what I am trying to present within my subject of reconnecting people to the city through their senses.
“A massive influence on my work has been Evelyn Glennie who is a deaf percussionist that learned to recognise higher and lower frequencies of sound with different parts of her body. This inspired me to create an installation which involves the haptic sense for people to not only hear the sound of the city, but reconnect by feeling it as well.
I had the chance to experience the first exhibitions of my work in the galleries of Chelsea during the Interim Show for example. I learned a lot about putting a show together and I will use that knowledge for my degree show. As MA Interior & Spatial Design students, we have large studios to work in together which is great. The technicians at Chelsea have helped me a lot, especially during the preparation and construction of my degree show, giving me the tools to make my ideas come true in terms of wood structure and audio visual support.
“During my time at Chelsea, I have had the chance to participate in Tate Exchange 2018 with the Digital Maker Collective. I met the collective in the Chelsea Makerspace and got involved in the Growing Space Project, addressing sustainability issues and recycling.
“We exhibited our project as part of Tate Exchange 2018 at Tate Modern in February 2018 during a week of workshops titled Art Works of the Future. Through this, I met a lot of interesting people and learned how to talk about my project in a professional manner which was really valuable.
“I think that being in a class of people from all sorts of backgrounds this year really provided me with a wider view of design approaches and careers. We influenced each other by providing an outsider’s look on everyone’s work to help each other progress in our concepts.
“I am proud to be part Chelsea College of Arts which has an established and prestigious network offering opportunities for exchanges between areas of study, for example at the Chelsea Makerspace where many students from different courses collaborate. I have to also mention that the architecture of Chelsea makes it a beautiful and cosy place to work!
“After graduation I plan to stay here in London to find a job as an interior designer. I am looking at agencies where I can develop the professional aspect of my passion to complement my academic skills. London is a busy city with a lot of cultural events of every scale, concerning every range of the arts much of which is open to the public, allowing a constant open-mindedness beneficial to feed our projects at Chelsea or just to stay curious about what is going on outside.
“My advice to incoming MA Interior & Spatial Design students; be confident in your ideas but also accept critique and judgment on your work because this is what makes us grow during the year. Organisation is key, and you will always find the help that you need, you just have to take action and ask. Be involved in what you do, take the time to build something meaningful to you because in the end it will be your project and you will show it as a representation of you.
“My Chelsea in three words? Experiments, reflection, support”
See more work on Eloise’s Vimeo
Explore work by more students at ChelseaDegreeShow.com
Find out more about this year’s MA Summer Show open 7 – 13 September
Find out more about MA Interior & Spatial Design
