Discussion

Here there would be a projector up high in the ceiling tilting down towards the floor. This is so that people can walk in front of it and still see the projection. Instead of having the text scrolling I think I would have it slowly fade in and out of view to avoid it looking like an advertising banner on the internet. Going for the subtle look you see... I couldn't add my text into the shadows on Google Sketch up but it would be along the skirting board at the bottom of the wall where you can see the shadows of the people and window frames.

I like the idea of using natural light rather than artificial. It means the work is more unexpected and works around existing conditionsr ather than having to create a whole new environment. The artists I have looked at use natural phenomena in their work such as Jiyeon Song and Olafur Eliasson. keeping the digital element with the projector and internet sourced text draws inspiration from Rachel Rakena's Mihi Aroha and many of Raphael Lozano-Hemmer's works.

I think the idea with the text on a skirting board is the best one. It succeeds where the others fail and meets all of the critera that I feel is necessary for the piece to work. It is the most interactive because people can walk around past it, choose their distance from the projection or choose not to have their shadow cast on it. My other concepts involved a revealing process but this could not be reversed in most of them which is something I feel is important to the work.
The idea with the charcoal would be more aesthetically appealing, and involves a really cool process but it lacks versatility and could only really be situated in a gallery for a very short time before the work had 'finished'.

If I could get hold of the right equipment and test out my original idea in a new space with a strong projector it would look a lot more finished than my other attempt. A question to do with my previous attempt at an artwork was 'Why did you use a projector?" I think it's pretty obvious that I used it for the fact that it plays with light and can be revealed by having a person's shadow cast on it. I would use an OHP but it would not have a strong enough light to be able to see the image properly. Another point was that my use of technology was extravagant. At the Elam Graduate exhibition I saw seven projectors and DVD players in one room, along with two huge flat screen TV's so I felt a little better about my own careless use of technology. When I pay over five grand for a course I think that gives me a good reason to utilise the materials available to me including electronics.

The title for my work is a phrase from a vintage poster advertising meat. I think its funny. I couldn't think of anything else appropriate, anything that alluded to interaction and projection apart from maybe the word 'you're'.

This concept allows for the best interaction, it would be situated in a public space meaning anyone could see it, not just the people who were looking for it or expecting something to be there. It is near the floor, this takes away the formality of it being an artwork. People look at the floor while walking a lot of the time and notice little things so I hope that they would notice this. This concept combines the best elements that I have thought of conceptually. It may not be the prettiest but it's visual simplicity was the most effective way of communicating the ideas I mentioned at the beginning of the blog :)

Workbook Pages

Discarded ideas
Projection similar to my other one but more suited to a public space. Projected low on the wall near the skirting board. I really like the idea of images being on the floor for some reason.. I was thinking of a location like the library, where people can quietly contemplate it and it is subtle as not to disturb people. Either that or an office building, but i think a library would reach a wider range of people (obviously in an office you would all work for the same company..).

Random brainstorm, much different to what I've been trying to focus on but worth keeping for later developments.

Charcoal idea

Experimentation with sellotape and charcoal.
This actually works far better than I thought. The visibility of the tape is still an issue and would be noticed on the white floor but the reflections would make it illegible until it became dirty with charcoal. I wet some of the paper to account for people with wet footwear and this gave a nice effect, the overall look is subtle because the white takes quite well to the charcoal I think it is the change in material and texture that would make the text stand out.
I tested this on A4 paper because I did not have a white floor or any light coloured floor.

IDEALLY>>> this installation would be as I described in an earlier post, red POSITIVE lettering on the floor with the other text written in some sort of adhesive. The source of the charcoal would be a BBQ stye mound of burnt stuff in the centre of the room, made to look like a sort of camp fire used for cooking but without untensils around to make link it closely with the cooking of meat. There would be burnt pieces of blackness scattered throughout the room to ensure that people walked through it and dragged it about the place to reveal the text.

The whole problem with this method, as with the other sellotape dirt one is that the people that first enter the installation will get the best experience. After the text is revealed it's a bit of a one liner, more like an interactive performance. The artwork would be finished in a sense because the making process, the unearthing of this amazingly thoughtful beautiful spectacular subliminal sarcastic sellotape message is the main focus of the work.

ok then.

I've just started reading NO LOGO by Naomi Klien, it's given me a lot of insight into advertising and bradning methods relative to each generation and periods of time.

Activism

A policy of taking direct and militant action to achieve a political or social goal

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.

One who is politically active in the role of a citizen; especially, one who campaigns for change.

I'll address this issue now because it appears to have made a considerable contribution to my failure. My previous ideas about putting work in a supermarket would have been 'militant action', I did not go through with them because of this. I don't like confrontation.
I aim to bring about social awareness that may eventually lead to social change. I don't agree with the above definition that states;
"This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument."
Is that to say that campaigning peacefully for things like animal rights and PEACE is controversial? People that would percieve my work as activism are people who eat meat, vegetarians find it humorous. It would be hard to set aside your personal feelings when looking at my work, if you eat meat you will think it's kind of stupid (that is the impression I got).

I am poking fun at people that eat meat, not trying to get them to stop. That would be hypocritical when my own family hunt and farm animals, I'm not going to tell them to stop doing it, I think its great that they hunt for their food. It's a personal descision what you choose to eat and I'm not about to go and preach to people my opinion of what they should and shouldn't put in their mouth, I just want to highlight issues associated with it. If I had been aware of the impact farming had on the earth, or the conditions that some animals were kept in I would have becpme vegetarian a long time ago. I just want to make the information available for people if they are curious and that is why my projection gives the viewer the CHOICE to see it or not. Even then my text is from a meat eater's perspective, only twisted slightly by changing the colour to highlight positive words.

If I am an activist then everyone is to some degree. People are very critical of others that hold strong beliefs, if I mention vegetarianism; the same as if somebody christian mentions God, I get accused of trying to force it down people throats. Mass media in doing this is never accused of it. Sigh.

projection sketch up

Please click on the images for a closer look.
As you can see, this is a first attempt at using google sketch up. Nice and simple to use but unfortunately I don't have enough time to learn it before I have to submit this. here is an aerial shot of the IDEAL space i would use for a projection work. Long white wall, and easy access to walk straight through without noticing the work if that should happen, as well as enough space to interact with it. The projector is up high in the centre of the room, pointing down low so that people can walk in front of it and still see the projected image when the light source is OFF. When it is ON they will only be able to see red text, illustrated in the images below.
I found it VERY hard to get a light source coming from a spotlight so had to improvise and use the default sunlight setting, and cut a long hole in the bottom of the wall to let the light in. As you can see here, Sang is poking through the roof getting too excited and shillouette man rotates with the view and is annoying. The shadows from the people passing through are cast onto the wall where previously light was shining on some lovely red lettering cut out of vinyl and stuck to the wall.

In this image you can see the white text in the projection has been revealed by the shadows, making full sentences from the words in red that were previously the only thing visible on the wall. So in the ideal situation in this ideal room of wonder the room would not be dark at all like this image, the only shadows would be those cast by the people in the room.

The light source where the hole in the wall is would have to be very strong, and very precise. It could possibly be another projector showing just white light so that then it would match exactly the dimensions of the wall with no light bleeding out the sides.

revisiting the text

Looking at this months after creating it there are some things i will change. Firstly, the quotes are far too close together. I think if i were to project this i would make the composition a lot wider and have fewer quotes over a larger area. This would make them easier to read, and the viewer could concentrate on one at a time rather than being bombarded with words and messages.

I am going to remove some of the more confrontational statements so that the reading of it is more ambiguous in a sense. I don't want it too be too easily recognisable as the work of someone who doesn't eat meat :)

I could set up an online poll or something of that description, or upload a video to youtube and get resonses on that then use them. I don't think this would have any advantages though, much of the same comments that i have already sampled would be repeated and it would seem a little too calculated. I love these quotes because they are pulled from the internet. People act much differently on line compared to speaking with someone face to face. People seem to have more extreme views and speak more confidently, sayig a lot of un-PC things! The source of my text is endless, anyone has access to it and it can be altered or deleted at any time. Taking this text out of context and putting it in physical space rather than the hyper-real domain of the internet lets people examing this online behaviour. People reading it will not directly link it with coming from the intenet as it could have come from anywhere. They will contemplate the extreme views and behaviours demonstrated and hopefully this will provoke some sort of reaction or chain of thought.

One thing i really liked from the previous piece I submitted was the photographs i took for documentation. They became an entirely new work in themselves, cropping the text so that it wasn't read as a complete sentence but you still got the general idea and message.