Project Evaluation

Void

This project has come together to create an alternative layer to a Manchester Design Festival reflecting our ideas as a group concerning sensory interference and interpretation. As a group we have worked well discussing and generating our thoughts and ideas, and supporting each other in every element of the Festival in terms of promotion, spaces and making. I have particularly found working in a group beneficial, it has been a good way to share research and expand your knowledge on a subject we have all been passionate about.
We found it was best spending as much time together in the studio as we possibly could, it gave us time to reflect on our thoughts and for us all to have so kind of input with the experiments carried out. When decisions were made we made them as a group and took everyone's opinions into consideration and I believe that this was why our group functioned together so well.
Although there were points that either experiments didn't quite work or not all of the group were able to meet, however these obstacles were all part of learning as a group and the things that didn't work out became parts of the project we could reflect on positively and fins alternative ways of using the process. As a group we kept each other updated with our ideas through the social network page we created for our group, on here we could discuss our thoughts and it became a good way of organizing ourselves.
The research carried out within this project has been of great interest to me and I intend to further my research into the subject of sensory interference. I have found working in a group a challenging way of learning and working however working with likeminded people has been an inspiring and positive experience, it has encouraged me to think about other peoples thought processes and ways of approaching their work, certain elements I think are things I can incorporate in approaching my own work.

Concealed Glow Panels

Initially I thought of making a space made from the pouches, a space that for the Festival would be placed in various locations around the city, spaces where people can take time to waste time and reflect and think about senses they wouldn't usually notice.
The piece is a series of three panels, two of the panels contain a series of resin cast cubes containing glow in the dark paint, and the third is made from the original pouches painted with the glow in the dark paint entrapped between the sheer panels of fabric. I wanted them to reflect the ghostly layered ideas in relation to my experimentation with the maps.

Final Maps

Final map samples.

Group 3 Final Manifesto

Void

 An alternative layer to a Manchester Design Festival.

Working alongside a daytime festival, VOID is a design festival taking part at night. Creating an alternate Manchester within the darkness.

VOID will not promote specific events or reveal content prior to the start of the festival. But rather, reveal snapshots of what might be to come, through promotional material. Working with the idea that VOID will seem like an empty blank space until the night reveals all.

VOID is concerned with regeneration of non-spaces within Manchester through the experience of the people rather than tangible redevelopment.

VOID considers intangible design through sensory experience and interaction rather than design of commodity or product.

Exploring the limits of what can be experienced through the heightening of senses. VOID creats a space detached from everyday distractions and allows the audience to simply experience their senses. Encouraging interaction with each other but also creating areas for sole reflection.

We are VOID. A night time design festival.

Not reflecting on the past or concerning the future but experiencing the now.

Mapping

My intention was to create a layered map, I had researched into the idea of ghost mapping and by concealing the layers with tracing paper. We discussed ideas of painting the area of Cathedral gardens with luminous to hide the location of the Festival until darkness. I experimented with cut outs of the area and layers of light to illuminate the space.

Interactive video

Projection of Tom's promotional video onto Ursula's mouldable stitched form. The idea for the audience to interact moulding the fabric into different shapes, moving the light around the wall.

Interviews

As part of our research we discussed the idea of interviewing a series of people that focus their practices on the effects of the senses. We didn't ask particularly specific questions, the idea was to get an overview of certain elements they considered as part of their way of working and thinking. I was part of assisting with two of the interviews, one for which we interviewed my friend Jensen Brite a Sound Designer and Music student from Salford University. Some of what he talked about concerned how vision is our primary sense and it allows us to see things in order to interpret them and understand what they represent. Also how sound is an instantaneous thing, and we use sound to rectify and understand what vision presents with us.
The second interview was with Collectives and Curiosities, a collaborative group of musicians that put much emphasis on the importance of integrating across the art forms and have done many collaborative projects. One of which took place at Blank Space Media Collective relatively recently, this exhibition incorporated ideas concerning light sensitive sounds. Some of the points discussed by Michael Betteridge and Jacob Thompson Bell were about passive and active listening, and how you can sit an listen to something your not really listening to, you let it wash over you like an ambient thing or you can actively listen but your still sitting on your seat being an observer, an audience member rather than a component part of it, you don't even need to have an audience to have something performed. This is one of the main factors that concerns their work, that the audience must be involved and potentially become a part of the work.

Beams of light

This article talks of the work of Richard Box, the piece explores the debate whether electric and magnetic fields produced by appliances such as mobile phones and high-voltage wires contribute to human illness and cancer. The works is made from a series of fluorescent light bulbs displayed in a gridded form, the beams are planted in the ground beneath a series of power lines. The luminosity of the bulbs is controlled using ghost power radiating from the overhead wires.
This work related to the ideas we have been exploring within our group with magnetism an light, experimenting with ferrofluid (magnetic liquid).

http://inhabitat.com/eco-art-field-of-beams/

Parting sapce with light.

I found this article very relevant and could be one way of inhabiting the sensory spaces. By using haze machines and beams of light, it creates a flattened stream of light creating the illusion of a light wall.

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2007/04/anthony_mccalldecember_2007_ja.html

Ink experiments for promotional video

Group 3 spent the day experimenting with different consistencies of liquids to document their movement and the reaction they had in the water. Tom filmed the experiment with the intention of using the footage as a promotional video.

Light adaptation

Sensitivity of the human photonic visual system declines with increasing ambient intensity. Sensitivity regulation is part of a process called 'light adaptation'. this process stabilises object appearance across illuminated conditions.
Abstract Masking, a process in which the stimulus visibility can be reduced by other stimuli that overlap the same region of visual space, a process known as masking.
Light phenomena enhances the details of your surroundings.
Visualising a dimension we wouldn't usually perceive.

Thoughts about visualising a space, creating a fabricated environment consisting of the sensory elements. A different space for each element, creating separate synthetic worlds that will cause the audience to engage with their senses in a new and unique way, to provide a journey of thought into an alternative reality.

Layered resin glow in the dark pouches

Glow bricks

Experimenting with resin, entrapping glow in the dark paint within the resin layers. Creating brick like forms that could possibly be used as location markers for the Festival.

Intangibility

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPAoWflgO1w

I thought this film related well to the intangible element to our ideas, the smoke is made visible by the lighting and it seems to have a ghostly presence as it moves across the room.

Light Illuions

Research into the effects of luminosity of lighting.

Pupils constrict wen we look at a brighter object from increased luminosity. we construct partly illusory perceptions that help us function better. Various light phenomena help us see details in our surroundings much better. Many illusions reflect the best interpretation we have of visual information. Maybe what we see is better than reality..

Night Walk

As a group we decided it would be a good idea as our ideas were generally focused on events and happenings in darkness that we should go on a night walk around the city to familiarise ourselves with the spaces available to us. During the night time spaces and places appear somewhat different than they do during the day, darkness can make you question a place more, possibly confusing you to think how much you truly know that place.
The night walk was a really useful way to start generating our ideas, we took with us a section of objects to incorporate into the spaces such as glow sticks and bubbles. In the images I increased the exposure to reveal the markings made by the lights, revealing the light from dark. We also carried out an experiment using bubbles within the Cathedral Gardens fountain area, the bubbles reflected off the water creating streams of colours within the images. The use of the bubbles related well to the intangible ideas we had been thinking about.

Group 3 Manifesto

- playing with the elements of light.
-the effects of the senses during the night/ darkness
- making something that could encourage people to interact with one another (magnetic wristbands) and tracking devices.
- leading people by light.
- the idea of happenings, rather than having specific set events.
- Ghost spaces, thinking about intangible events.

 

Manifesto Words...

- Intangibility
- Senses
- Organic
- Spontaneity
... - The appeal of the unknown
- Interaction
- Creativity
- Growth and momentum
- Temporary
- Counter intuition



Future Everything

In relation to the topics we have been considering within our group. A night festival, or events in darkness. As part of the Future Everything Festival I attended the Speed of Light event and the imagery from the event I think could be a relevant link to our group discussions.

Silent Stretches of Space

There is nothing like silence to suggest a sense of unlimited space.
Absence of sound leaves it quiet and in the silence we are seized with the sensation of something vast and boundless.
The mere absence of noise causes people to psychologically fall apart.

Group 3 Discussions

We formed into 3 separate groups, merging people from the previous groups of making, space and promotion. In our new group we found there was an underlying link between us all in the form of senses.
As a group we discussed our ideas surrounding the topic, mainly focusing on intangible elements. I explained the ideas I had been exploring in terms of concealing light (light pouches), and the idea of something concealed within the light and revealed in darkness.
There was much focus on sensory interference, and thinking of senses as something we are constantly surrounded by but go unconsciously unnoticed.
Possible ideas for the festival would be to have a constant flow of information and interactions, making people aware of the elements that constantly surround them but portraying this in an intriguing way.

Layered Shadow Drawings

Taking elements from the light pouches and layers, this is reflected through the layered drawings
 creating shadows layering and concealing themselves.

Light Pouches

Finding ways of concealing light, referring back to previous experimentation with glow in the dark paint. Creating an object that reflects ideas about light proofing, a tightly concealed layered structure.
using a very small repetitive blanket stitch to conceal the pouches.

Sensory Deprivation

Sensory derivation, perceptual isolation- deliberately reducing or removing the stimuli from one or more of the senses. The zero gravity effect of the salt water within the sensory deprivation tanks and the lack of temperature plays with your ability to perceive where your body ends and where water and air begin.
Our senses are very much used to the everyday ruckus constantly surrounding us of which we become reliant on.
. Thinking of possible ways of soundproofing and light proofing spaces.
. Isolating its occupant from numerous forms of sensory input.
. Senses become a bridge between two alternative realities.

Senses

Bringing light into places often hidden or concealed in the light, and revealing these places when in darkness.
Low stimulus spaces, quiet anechoic spaces.
The limits of what you could experience, or limiting the experience.

Researching into anechoic spaces/ chambers. The acoustics of the space create an almost limitless an vast space like you are high up in the open air despite the space being rather restricted in size, there are no reflections from the walls, floor or ceiling therefore tricking the mind into thinking you are surround by a vast space.
The space is immensely quiet, ideal for testing particularly quite sounds.
Due to the quietness of the space and its boundless surroundings it could be a perfect place of reflection, the sound of silence and the silent stretches of space.

The Poetics of Space

From reading the Poetics of Space there were some points discussed about how to enhance an empty space.

An echo of a space emphasises its emptiness.
Mirroring a space emphasises its fullness.

This could be representative of an old water or oil tanker, empty shells of something once full, contained and concealed.

Space

 

Considering ideas from discussions within the groups about space and the elements I think are most interesting.

 

. Thinking about an awareness of place and space reflecting back on points made in the Manchester International Festival (MIF), making people aware of unknown spaces, masking the identity of a space or to enhance its emptiness.

 

.Within empty spaces create a place that is out of control or simply lost, the presence of absence.

 

. Spaces of Manchester, grey dungeness of an empty space, the empty shell block building near the mancunian way, places evacuated of life, the end of the old or the beginning of something new.

. Wasting time, exhausting time, thinking of time passing within the space.



 

 

Walter Benjamin

'The grey film of dust covering things has become their best part'

The ruin in reverse, how it could become an all new construction that would be eventually built.

Ruins

A site from which life has departed and creating a present from a past life. Giving Space new life..
Creating a space to occupy a central place in visual culture.

Manchester Design Festival

Space discussion.

. Manchester City Council and Manchester School of Art working together to develop a city wide design festival.
. The regeneration of the city
. Acting as a catalyst for future collaborative partnerships.
. The use of un-traditional spaces
. Festival branding an promotion.
. A festival of ideas.
. Unexpected interactions.
. Themed displays rather than subjects.

The Space Group

Discussions within the Space Group of utilising places of the city.

. Finding spaces and responding to the environment of the space
. A hovering space above the city..
. The development of the Piccadilly area.
. The use of the River, and canal.
. Regeneration of empty desolate space.
.

MIF Lecture

Having attended the Manchester International Festival lecture I found all elements of the lecture very interesting. However there was one event mentioned that I found very relevant to my current thoughts about the senses, the performance by the band the XX and how the venue they would be playing at would be a secret and the audience will never know where the venue is or how they get to it..

Space

Considering the previous discussions in group work about sustainability. Thinking in relation to space that could be potentially used within the city. From reading the book 'Ruins' and what they represent;

 

 

The ruined building is a remnant of;

 

a portal into

 

the past

 

its decay

 

a concrete reminder of the passage of time.

 

 

Unveiling the hidden ruins of the city. Thinking about sites, landscape, place and memory. 

Tacita Dean, Sound Mirrors

It is an empty desolate place, and I'm sure it is this desolation that makes dungeness so utterly attractive that in its emptiness it can become so full.

 

Tacita Dean

 

Thinking about the emptiness of space and how emptiness could reflect something vast and boundless.

The Crap Manifesto

Stop making crap..
Taking into account the previous discussion about each of our individual practices and what we strive to represent through our work. We began our discussion by thinking about the main points mentioned from previous manifestos and there seemed to be one particular quote we all related to and it was 'Stop Making Crap'. The Manifesto stated how we wanted people to take time and think rather than making something without thought, considering the ideas surrounding commodities and sustainability when making.

Manifesto

Reflecting on the present moment.
To reflect on the present requires an awareness of what's past.
To cast forward into the future ruin of our own present.
Non places and anonymous spaces.
The end of the old or the beginning of something new.
A fragmented reminder of something now gone.


Some thoughts I consider when thinking about my own practice.

Blue Sky Thinking Manifesto

Filtering through thoughts reflecting personal views.
Brian Eno Oblique Strategies- ways of solving create problems and dilemmas in working situations. Efforts and accomplishments based on intuition and intellect. As new ideas present themselves other ideas then become self-evident.
Discussing our own practices in groups based on our accomplishments and personal creative views.

John Wynne

John Wynne is a sound artist, his work ranges from huge installations to delicate sculptural works and im some pieces he creates interesting reflections of order and chaos.

I was drawn to the simple block forms of the speakers within a blank,masked space.

Geoffrey Manton evaluation

I began this project from reading the book by Oliver Sacks ‘The Man who mistook his wife for a hat’. The book is made up of a series of short stories each are individual stories about Oliver Sack’s patients suffering from unusual forms of dementia. In one part of the book the patient can’t seem to remember when asked what a glove is? He instead describes what its possible functions could be

-          A continuous surface

-          Infolded on itself

-          Five outpouchings

-          A container of some sort

-          It would contain its contents

 

From these descriptions I then began to approach the making of my samples reflecting them.

On visiting the Geoffrey Manton building itself I wanted to see how the space affected me and how I felt within the space. I felt that the space was striving to preserve some kind of identity through the large pristine, blank spaces. The shapes within made up of lines and gestural markings, shapes due to their masked nature were barely there.

 

My intention would be to create a series of five abstract forms, taking inspiration from the descriptions and merging my thoughts of the building to make a temporary installation. Each separate element would be made from a silk organza fabric measuring a metre by a quarter of a metre and would contain abstract casts of plaster forms within them. So as not to distract from the pieces themselves I believe the best way of attaching them to the space would be by fixing a Perspex rod to the wall and inserting eyelets into each piece, attached with a strong fishing wire to the Perspex rod.

 

 I want the plaster bags to have a somewhat ghostly presence to reflect the idea of a fading memory or thought, relating back to the presence of the building and how you can feel lost within a space of lifeless abstractions. Portraying how the patients suffering from memory loss must have felt, with their worlds gradually fading around them almost loosing the very idea of seeing, seeing something for what it truly is.

Space and placement.

 

 

 

Considering the space and placement of the work. Making a series of five plaster bags hanging central within the space. I think this is possibly the best place for these particular pieces to be exhibited due to heir delicate nature I believe the corridor space would not be ideal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plaster Sacks

It could contain its contents..
Making a series of silk organza hanging forms contaning abstract casts of plaster. Thinking about potentially making five plaster bags, to carry on the theme of the five outpouchings.

Stitched graphs

Making stitched samples using french knots to plot the shapes and then masking the stitching with layers of silk organza, showing how the marks can fade away like a memory. Likewise I created gridded drawings and layered them with tracing paper to create the idea that they are fading.

Balnk Space exhibiton

From recently volunteering at Blank Space I was lucky enough to see this particular piece, the artist had collected images of peoples everyday memories and she entrapped them within these spherical shapes. To view the image you had to look into the ear casting on the outside and shine a torch on the back of the sphere, like looking into to brain to see the memory or thought.

Painted memory graph

Plotting my own painting on A2 graph paper selecting the shapes and colours reflected in the photographs taken in the Geoffry Manton building.

Memory Graph

Taking aerial photos of the Geoffry Manton building, focusing on the absract shapes of the tables and other various objects below. The floor appears to me to look like a very large graph and the tables and other objects plot themselves on the graph.

Blanking out shapes and spaces

Masking out the abstract shapes to create  blank space.

Geoffrey Manton

I have chosen the Geoffrey Manton Comission as one of my projects, from observing the shapes within the building I found the gridded window structures the most interesting. Relating back to the minimal abstract shapes seen by the patient suffering from dementia.