I visited, along with the composer Nye Parry, the brand new exhibition space at Royal Holloway University, where Digital Forest, my installation in making, will have its first public showing. (From April- July 2018)
It was really exciting to see the finished exhibition space, which is 100 square metres. It gave me a much clearer image in my head of what the eventual work will look like, and while on the train home I quickly did a sketch of where some things might go in the space, as otherwise I couldn’t stop imagining it. The space, apart from being really big, is state of the art, with controllable temperature and lighting etc and moveable walls so I can configure it as I want. As it is so new it has lots of convenient additions such as plenty of power points, which can often be an issue when installing my work as I use a lot of equipment. This installation is likely to involve the use 15 projectors – all with films that are timed to come on and go off at specific times, so along with DVD players, amplifiers and computers, I will be doing a lot of plugging in! The space is also a perfect fit for my work because it is totally self- contained and can be completely blacked out. My work always involves projected video, which I design to sculpt the space, so any light source other than the projector, or projectors, themselves, really intrudes and at worst can destroy the whole piece. Often curators don’t seem to understand this, and want to place my work next to other light based works or near emergency lights, which can’t be switched off. However, here there are none of those nightmares, just a blank canvas space, into which I will choreograph light, image and sound. I am really enjoying working on this project in the studio and can’t wait to see it installed.
