Diving into a world of sensors, programming, hardware, software it becomes evident to structure what I want to learn, whilst keeping an open mind for the possibilities each separate element has to offer. A form and functionality is roughly shaping in my head, but to see it clearly I need to start forming questions, setting out a flexible framework for the thing I want to make. This project is as much about learning new skills as it is about developing my own answers to them. Why do I want to bring these elements into my practice, what do they really mean, how are they relevant to what I’m doing? Some of these come up as early as the funding application. As much as you inherently know that this is the path you want to take, it takes some prising out for substantial answers.
To define the physical elements I would need to complete my project, I started writing down the vision, descriptions of experiences and images I had in my head. I did this over a period of a couple of weeks trying to limit my thinking to what I wanted as opposed to what I thought/knew was possible. Then I’d start to look at those critically, did I think anyone would really be interested in any of those, would these actually create a real value as opposed to creating a gimmicky effect, fun to play with but not really saying much, and what is it I really want to say? How do I include/ use silence as another sound?
The elements that I want to be part of this project in its finished prototype state are:
- A sculptural object made out of several glass sculptures.
- A way to detect visitors in the room.
- A way to analyse their behaviour, be it actual movements or patterns of movements in the space.
- The proximity of those visitors to the, which I currently imagine as central, object.
- A response from this sculptural object in the form of light and sound.
- For all of these elements to be able to be reconfigured in new combinations, with different behaviours and sounds and to be able to add video / audio in and out to this.
