In downtown Melbourne, there is a creative arts studio called Signal for young adults aged between 13 to 25. They conduct workshops to showcase Melbourne’s artistic young talent. Signal is open to anyone, regardless of their creative skills and abilities.

I completed a workshop there and gained experience and visual knowledge during early April continuing to early May this year. The theme was self identification and we expressed this by taking ‘selfies’ and constructing them into collages, online avatars, performances and finally by doing a presentation/performance for the general public. We had three artists to help and guide us through the journey of producing a high level of artwork. Six other girls worked on the project as well.

On the first day, the first thing we did was take a ‘selfie’ with a Polaroid camera. I had never used this type of camera before; I thought this was super cool. We were then assigned to design a ‘selfie’ out of everything we had in our bags. I found this task difficult because I didn’t bring along much with me apart from my iPod with headphones, wallet, keys with an Eiffel tower key ring and a few fineliners. In the end, I was quite proud of what I had made. As the day progressed, I then had to do a performance based on my answers to a survey of basic questions. Some of these were ‘What is your nickname?’ and ‘What is your favourite part of your body?’. Acting or any type of performing, especially solo, isn’t my greatest strength and ideas weren’t coming to my head. An artist gave me a few ideas and she got me thinking about some in depth.

The following day we were all to meet up at the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria). Firstly, we did a few drawing exercises. The highlight of this was doing a contour drawing. This is a form of drawing where you draw with your eyes closed so you can’t see what you’re actually doing. They all turned out to look completely hysterical. It was so interesting to see the outcome because I wasn’t expecting it to look so different to what I was visualising in my head. After this, we were all toured around by the artists to see some self portraits that were exhibited. My favourite was named Self-portrait no.9, made by Andy Warhol and produced in 1986. The diversity of pastel colours used worked well together. The artists then told us to take a ‘selfie’ with each artwork. This was completely embarrassing as the gallery was packed that day. Eventually, we each managed to capture different photos. We went back to Signal that day and created collages with all the pictures we had taken so far, and anything we could find in magazines. I decided to use the Polaroid ‘selfie’ that I took the previous day. I adored how my turned out. It was my favourite thing that I had made so far in the project.

I continued to attend this workshop on Wednesday nights. Other activities included creating an online avatar on the program ‘SecondLife’. We got to explore a whole world and form ‘another self’, someone who we desire to be. The days started getting longer and longer and we began to plan for our presentation.

The group decided that it would include all different visual aspects like a performance, our artwork and even an interactive space for that audience. I was feeling very enthusiastic as it got closer and closer to the presentation.

A few nights before the presentation, we prepared a lot which included creating our own gallery. To make mine, I got large pieces of white paper to form a background. I placed all my pieces of artwork freely without thinking about placement too much. To present, I wanted a complex format. I tried to add detail such as colourful intricate borders and different lines to add written aspects. My whole piece turned out to be a success and I was very pleased.
The presentation itself turned out to be highly successful and enjoyable. The audience liked it very much as the group received great comments and feedback. They all got to take part in the interactive part, which involved covering a hashtag wall, making their own collages and dressing in costumes to be ‘another self’. I gained a lot of confidence from this experience which will help me further in my life. My artistic skills have also developed which I can now use for particular subjects at school. I’m really glad and fortunate to have taken part in this collaborative project with girls the same age as me and with talented artists.

Signal creative arts studio for young adults aged 13 to 25 is located in Flinders Walk, Northbank, Melbourne. Multiple workshops and projects are always running. www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Signal/Pages/Signal.aspx

* Elektra Flaskas Troaditis is a Year 10 student at Princess Hill Secondary College who did her work experience at Neos Kosmos’ English edition.