In CA2 I said I liked working with people who I like and find inspiring, because this will most likely in result in a fruitful project. My teachers told me I should be aware that I can not always collaborate with people who I like. That I should find a way to set boundaries and make agreements so I can still make good work with people I don't really like. I definitely agree with that. I do think you should try to work with people who inspire you, because to me it doesn't make much sense to work with somebody who isn't. I do understand that you don't always get to choose. In the past year I haven't really encountered this. I collaborated with my my best friend, with whom I wanted to collaborate for a long time. I'm happy I got to do that.

During the autonomous practice of 2.3 I had a very enthousiastic and motivated group. This made it very easy to feel comfortable and bring in ideas. We worked on a small project and even had the choice to do it individually, but because we worked well together we stayed in the group.
For my practice in 3.1 I was supposed to work in a group. I did not really like the group I was in, but I guess you could say I had the luck that the teachers decided to make the project individually, after they saw how hard it was to work together with the circumstances of corona.
Despite of not having collaborated with a lot of people in the past year, I do think I am becoming better at it. I know better what I can offer in a group. I trust more in my skill and opinions.

For the musicvideo 'Zon in de nacht' I collaborated with my best friend Jillis. We wanted to do a project together for a while now and during the summer break we finally found the time and opportunity to do so. He applied for audiovisual on WdKA that summer. We wanted to combine my skill to draw and his video-editing skills to explore a new medium: animation. I hoped that we would work well together and that it wouldn't bring tension.

The beginning of the project went super well. We had exactly the same ideas about what the project should become. We were very respectful of eachother's ideas and could be honest about what we did and didn't like. However, after thinking of the concept, we had to go our seperate ways. I would work on the illustration on my own. I would show him what I had made and then continue. I made sure to name all the layers and put them in groups, so it would be easy for him to animate. As I mentioned before, this was a project commissioned by his father. It was somewhat a favor. The client wanted to preferably have it finished before summer would end. Because it was a favor I didn't go out of my way and didn't put pressure on finishing it fast. We didn't make clear agreements on this. Jillis did feel this pressure and started pressuring me about when I would finish the drawing. This annoyed me which I didn't tell him and put me in a weird position. We did everything right, except for planning. I ended up finishing the drawing after summerbreak. He animated the video during the autumn break.

I learned from this that clarity is key. We trusted so much in our collaboration, that we forgot about important things like planning. Perhaps we should have been more professional with eachother and the client, eventhough we were friends and in their case family.
Another thing that was awkward, was to go our own ways with illustrating and editing. Because I had to start with drawing the scene and making the file Jillis had to work with, I layed the foundation of the project. I think I should have involved Jillis more, because it was very overwhelming for him to get this file with a whole bunch of layers and groups. It is important to realize we both have our own tasks, but we should keep eachother involved just enough to know what we are doing and give eachother feedback.

In CA2 I also collaborated with somebody I could get along with really well: Victoria. There was always honest and respectful communication. This resulted in one of the most interesting projects I've done until now. I hoped this would be the same for collaborating with my best friend and roommate: Jillis.

Collaborating in the past year

Collaborating with my best friend

Clip from Zon in de nacht

Mother and Child, Taboo assignment with Victoria, picture by Gert-Jan Pos