Class of 2019: Olivia Jones

BA (Hons) Fine Art, Plymouth College of Art

“As my course has progressed my work has become more ambitious. I’ve been encouraged to push myself, to experiment with scale and use more challenging mediums. One of the reasons I chose Plymouth College of Art was its great resources and equipment and my earlier work included experiments with screen printing and 3D printing.

Plymouth is a place made complex with issues around its post-war heritage and now tourism. My practice has become outdoor and location-based, including working with sound and geo-tagging software, to re-map Plymouth and explore how audiences can interact with their city.

For my degree show I’m collecting audio in non-tourist areas of Plymouth and recording myself narrating while I move around the streets. I then manipulate and compose the sound, re-listening and editing ‘visually’, to create unrecognisable but specifically located pieces. I will then place these back into their original locations using a geotagging app, through which the audience can experience the sound.

My degree show will include an installation and performative ‘tourist/information’ counter, offering my audio tour in the form of headphones and maps with QR codes. I’m interested in neglected or forgotten sites and hope my work will make the audience – whether Plymouth residents or visitors – look at and think about the city differently.

My degree has taught me how to be persistent, experimental and to challenge myself. With my show I want to achieve a quality of work that exceeds my ambitions, beyond simply being a student, but as an artist. I feel the show will be an incredibly important ‘ta dah’ moment and be something to look back on and be proud of.”

Degree show: 15-20 June. www.plymouthart.ac.uk/courses/ba-hons

Images:
1. Olivia Jones, screen shot of geotagging map, showing where the sound is located, 2019.
2. Olivia Jones, out on Union Street, Plymouth, with the sound equipment recording the area, 2019.

Interview by Ellen Wilkinson