Ellie Birkenhead-Jones: When a door is closed, a window opens

The day after the presentation, we had a studio booked for two hours. We had a data projector reserved and Vicky and I were going to project some of our images onto each other whilst Kerry directed and filmed us. She also brought her masks to use which she made. We had originally planned to re do some of the scenes we had tried the week before but decided that the quality of those was more than good enough and our time would be better spent trying out new things. I had also brought a mirror with me with the intention of reflecting the projections onto each other. Unfortunately we could not get the projector to recognise the laptop and spent the whole two hours with the technician in the AV store, trying to fix it, with no luck. Kerry had an Apple Macbook Air but they didn't have the right connector for that. I asked if they had the old fashioned over head projector but they were both being used and weren't available till next Friday which is a little late in the game really. So we weren't having much luck and before we knew it our time was over. Luckily Kerry had managed to take a few shots with her masks so it wasn't a complete waste of time. There was a cancellation the next day at 8am so we booked that and went back to the drawing board. It was frustrating but we were able to see the funny side, and because I never seem to have much luck with technology anyway I wasn't surprised. I knew I really wanted to project my images and Vicky did too, so I had a go shining my torch through some of my acetate prints, which worked! I also broke the mirror to create a mosaic effect, inspired by my collaged 'Perfect Skin' images. I reflected the torch off it onto the wall which created a really interesting pattern. I also photographed myself in the mirror to distort myself. I like the shape it creates. So for the next morning we planned to go back to basics, and project our chosen images onto each other using acetate and a torch.

A year ago when I was in college, if this would have happened, it would have completely ruined my day. Things don't always go to plan I have can accept that now and move on. We were able to see the funny side and didn't let it faze us. In a way I am glad this happened as it forced me to be more creative to get the effect I wanted and has now taken me in a new direction.