finalmajorprojectfoundation-blog

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Final projection space

After some consideration and evaluation of all my options to project my final pieces, I settled on a constructed space in the main work room. We built it using black space dividers on one side and as a roof, black sugar paper on the other side, and by pulling a piece of canvas across the back to project the photographs onto. This isn’t the large scale that I wanted to work in initially, but after trying it out I decided that having a smaller scale in a space which completely fits the projection would better create an immersive environment and would create the feeling that I want to resonate with the viewers of my work. There will be some chairs placed at the opening of this space so people can sit down and look at the photos at ease, and get immersed in the feelings and thoughts that they hopefully provoke.

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Fifth projection experiment

The last room I tried projecting in was one of the boardrooms. This space worked better than the previous, but again you have the problem of seeing the edge of the projection. As well as this, you can see the projection on the floor and ceiling which further takes away from the atmosphere that I want to create. In this space I tried projecting straight onto the boards, but you could see the grain of the wood and the space between the panels which is distracting.After doing these experiments in the different rooms I have decided that working in such a large scale doesn’t create the desired immersive experience and so I will have to scale down, but still have a light tight area in which to project as that is how you get the best projection. I have also decided that I will project straight into a more solid piece of white material as opposed to the gauze or straight onto a wall because that way I can be assured to have an even surface without texture or blemishes to distract and also because the gauze is too see through and creates a double projection. 

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Fourth projection experiment

I decided that projecting in a separate room would be better to get the scale that I want for my installation. I first tried using one piece of gauze across the black curtain, but later decided to add a second one to get a better feeling for what it might look like. The problem with this space is that it’s too large and the projection looks very cut off because you can see where it finishes and doesn’t create the feeling that I want as space has no limit and here you can clearly see the edges. I will try and project in a smaller space.

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Ela Boyd - Reflection , Refraction, Projection

While looking at other artists who have installation pieces that use projection I found Ela Boyd’s “Reflection, Refraction, Projection”

“In her first year MFA exhibition, Ela Boyd’s light installations function as perceptual interfaces to explore apparition cognition. Using the tangible as an apparatus to catalyze the intangible, Boyd asserts the actuality of appearances. Holograms reflecting a series of adumbrated movements, projections that become windows into imagined worlds and light refractions giving the appearance of dimensionality, form an optical field that serves to collapse and expand the spatio-temporal experience. In spatialising the image and focusing on the decentralized character of the object, she posits a subject/object constellation wherein each node projects its image outward. Being-in-the-world is the inter-subjective in-between space, visible in the superimposition of projected images.” (Source) 

Ela Boyd’s work is completely different to Bil Viola’s work, who I looked at previously. Her work is chaotic, refracted and in a way you don’t know exactly where to look. It creates an almost otherworldly, immersive experience using projection which is what I want to achieve. The reflection and refraction aspect of her work I don’t think I could apply to my own because of potential spacing issues and restrictions, as well as lack of equipment (eg. using more than one projector). However I like how she’s projecting straight onto a wall and I think I could try that, depending on the space that I pick to display my work.

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third projection experiment

Before I work in a larger scale I tried projecting onto a black fabric to see how it would look instead of a white one, but the black fabric makes it so you can’t see the photo, so I would definitely have to project onto a white fabric. However I don’t think that I’m going to hang it with a distance in front of the black material again because of the double projection.

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second projection experiment

I decided to try and project in the dark room because it’s a light tight space. I first tried projecting straight onto the whiteboard again, but there was still a glare, so I decided to try and project onto some black paper. The black paper made the projection darker and swallowed up some of the detail so I decided to hang some gauze in front of it like in the first experiment, taking inspiration from Bil Viola’s work that I looked at previously. Again with the gauze you get the hologram feeling, but you can also see the photo twice because of the thin material, so if I use the gauze it would have to be right up against the surface it’s in front because otherwise you get the double effect. However if you do that, you lose the hologram effect that the gauze was giving in the first place. I then decided to stretch the fabric across the room and see what it would look like larger, and I definitely preferred the way it looks, however again you have the double projection happening which would distract from the feeling that I’m trying to create. My next experiment will be in a larger room.

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first projection experiment

My fist try of projecting some photos first onto a whiteboard and then onto a piece of gauzy material. I don’t like the way that it looks projected straight onto the whiteboard because of the shiny surface and the glare it creates. I like the effect that the gauze gives, it makes it look almost like a hologram, but because it’s so thin and see through it needs to have a solid surface behind it, because otherwise whatever is behind it is distracting as you can clearly see it. Also I will try projecting in a dark space, because the light makes the projection less visible, and therefore doesn’t create the immersive experience and feeling that I’m trying to achieve.

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Bill Viola - The Veiling

When I was trying to figure out a way to display my work in an immersive way that would make the audience feel as if they’re almost in space, I came across this piece by Bil Violla called “The Veiling”.

“The Veiling was one of five video and sound installations that Bill Viola created to occupy the five rooms of the United States Pavilion during the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995. Working in collaboration with the FWM, Viola created a system of nine sheer scrims that are hung parallel to one another and catch the light from video projections positioned on either end.” (Source) 

This piece really intrigued me because of the use of this gauzy material that creates an almost hologram-like look. I think that if I projected my photos onto something like this, I could get a very interesting look, but it would require a completely light tight space in which I could hang a large piece of gauze to project onto. 

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Constalations and Nebula

I decided to try and combine my initial interest in constellations with my ‘nebula’ photos to create more graphic pieces. I used Adobe Illustrator and a graphic tablet to draw the constellation over some of the photos. In doing so I created these two interesting pieces, but after some consideration I came to the conclusion that I prefer the look of the original photos as they create a more authentic feeling of space and nebula. Also, I couldn’t figure out a way to make my lines meet in the middle of the points and therefor the constellations look somewhat off and not quite as pleasing to the eye as I had hoped, so therefore I am going to go with my original idea of creating an immersive installation of some sort with the original photos. 

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Before I tried shooting the acrylic ink in the large tank I decided to use the small cylindrical container to do some test photos of how the ink spreads in the water, so as to get a feel for how it would look in the large tank. The brighter colours like pink and orange definitely look better than the more pastel ones like the yellow and green. The brown/sepia is probably going to be too dark but I will try it anyway just to see how it looks once it’s in there and has different lighting and other colours around it.

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Before I tried shooting the acrylic ink in the large tank I decided to use the small cylindrical container to do some test photos of how the ink spreads in the water, so as to get a feel for how it would look in the large tank. The brighter colours like pink and orange definitely look better than the more pastel ones like the yellow and green and seem to be more saturated with colour.

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Editing the photos

This was the editing process for the majority of the photos that I chose as the most successful. I increased the brightness in most of the photos and then went on to change the curves in order to bring even more brightness to the lighter parts and darken the darker parts, therefore creating more contrast and dimension within the photos. if necessary I used other tools like sharpen and colour editing tools to change or enhance certain colours or hues. 

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Second shoot - acrylic ink

For the second shoot I decided to use acrylic ink instead of drawing ink so I could test a different look to the photos. Once I sat down to review the photos I saw that with the acrylic ink, the photos where you can see the whole spread of ink don’t work in creating the look of a nebula as well as the more zoomed in and abstracted photos look. I also came to the conclusion that waiting for the ink to spread a little before shooting it gave better results, because acrylic ink being so opaque and saturated with colour looks almost like fabric twisting in the water when its first dropped in and therefore looks very obvious as to what it is, which isn’t what I’m going for. I want a surreal look, like the photos of nebulas captured by telescopes and space probes do. I used a different tank to shoot with this ink, so you don’t get the refracted light spots that you could see in the other shoot, but that doesn’t make them any less successful than the other photos. 

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Fist shoot - Drawing ink in water

These are some unedited photos from my shoot of drawing ink in water. Like I said in my artist research posts I decided to zoom in close to the ink, but later decided to shot some photos of the whole ink spread as well, more in the style of Brian Tomlinson due to their more piece-y and almost explosive look rather than the smooth flow of Alberto Seveso’s work. I decided to use a black background rather than a white one so as to better emulate space, and the small spots on the tank refract the light and look like starts that you would see in a galaxy or nebula, further adding to the effect that I’m trying to create. I took 116 photos on this shoot, emptying and re-filling the tank several times, and the next steps would be to pick the photos that I think are the best and edit them.

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Alberto Seveso

Alberto Seveso is another artist who photographs ink in water. He uses acrylic ink, like the one used in the video of the slow motion ink with the planets that inspired me to try out this method. I like how solid the colours are, and the way that they move together, almost creating a fabric-like quality because of their opacity. However, if I am to try using acrylic ink I would have a black background to emulate space. Again, I personally would zoom in to specific areas of the ink because I think it would give me a more abstract look, and make it look more like a nebula, rather than just ink in water. My goal is to create an immersive experience, and to create that experience I think it would be better if you couldn’t tell that it’s ink in water as that would take away from the overall feel.

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Brian Tomlinson

Brian Tomlinson is an artist who shoots ink in water. His work is very interesting in the sense that it looks like it almost has solid particles. He shoots the whole size of the ink spread, whereas I think for my work it would be better to zoom in on different swirls and patterns that the ink creates, as it would create images closer to the ones I have seen in my research of Nebulas and space. In his work I like the use of the black background and I will try and use it in my larger scale work with a bigger tank of water.

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Through these small scale experiments with the colours I found that I like the look of the pinks and reds better than the oranges, yellows or blues because they swirl together better rather than mixing which is the effect that I’m looking for in trying to recreate Nebula. Also, adding a darker colour to an already dissolved lighter colour makes the overall look muddy and cloudy, which is not the look that I am looking for and trying to create. My next step would be to work in a larger scale.