Its been a good few days. Built the rear-projection screen assembly for “Fear”. This was a mixture of optimising the screen size for the present piece and for the screen to be useful for other work. Ended up with a square which was good for the current piece and then gave me a large square screen (75×75 cm) …a less common format. The “stretching” of the screen took me back to Year 1. modules! Also completed the painting of the interior of the tubes, the 10cm roller worked well.
Yesterday worked on the cantilever support system for mounting the cube off the staircase. I learnt some woodwork and was introduced to the mysteries and craft of the “half cross joint”…thanks for the “hand-holding” Barry! I then made the plate assemblies which will bolt the crossed-cantilever to the landing area of the staircase. So far so good.
The double vitrine piece (the sublime compared with beauty) has been on-hold as it waits for the two frames. Since it is to be viewed close to eye-level, these need to be substantial and attached to a wall. They are currently being built at a local forge and hope to get them in the next few days. Then, I will fix these in the Degree Show space and continue their assembly.
Most of the studio work of late has been on the ‘fear’ piece. The joining of the tube part to the cube and the joining of the two tubes together. The cutting out of the central holes in the tubes and cube was relatively straight forward. I hadn’t known how the card-board would behave but it was stress-free in the end. More fun was the the aligning of 5 bolts through a 9mm MDF support ring, thick cardboard and 3mm ply. I ended-up up-ending the piece and working inside the cube while supported on two tables.
The next job was the decision on whether the inside of the tubes should be left as original cardboard or be painted. From a technical angle I thought that the inherent lightness inside would not help with the dark part of the video and also did not fit with the “feel” of the piece at that point in the sequence.So, what to do? Black was wrong, a dark scenic tunnel/tube-look would have been cheesy, so I went for mid-gray. This would be able to ‘take-on’ both the light and dark elements of the video being projected overhead. The insides are now mid-gray.
The last bit to assemble is the rear projection screen across the ‘hole’ at the base of the cube. I have decided to make the screen square and as large as I can (for use in future projects!), based upon the available screen material. This material is brilliant and produces a cracking image. Although not an issue for this piece, I have now found my projector has a “rear projection” setting, reversing the image. I will get some progress pics taken tomorrow.
Oh yes and I gave my 30min presentation (as part of the Dissertation) last Monday.
Yesterday, a photographic shoot beneath flyovers along the A55, M56 and M6 completed the supporting work for the ‘Secession and Uniformity’ vitrine. This line of work began by ‘finding’ the extraordinary space beneath the Llandudno Junction flyover on the A55 earlier in the year and led to a web search and then yesterday’s field research on road flyovers. What extraordinary spaces these frequently are, they really are reminiscent of internal church and cathedral architecture. They are not as symmetric but the curves of the roadway add another layer to the visual experience. If you then add the sounds which echo beneath these spaces, then to be there becomes quite a chilling and threatening experience. They deserve celebrating.
While at the sites I also collected sound at several places. This seems to come from the tyre thump over the expansion joints in the road deck… the sound level and attack of these noises can be quite unnerving. These sounds will be used to produce a soundscape for the ‘sublime’ vitrine.
