I really wanted to choose option three for this exercise: a large-scale landscape painting. However, I still experienced massive constraints due to the destruction of my creative space, there was simply no room to do an enormous pencil drawing or painting.
My second backup option was to explore how I might work digitally, and somehow project it onto a larger space. I was intrigued by seeing public art in a nearby town, like this mural on a network cabinet:
I thought about how I might accomplish something similar. I even prepared photographs of other surfaces that I could somehow project an image onto:
When I came to start sketching possible images, I had a crisis of confidence. I felt like using these images to project my digital image are little different to the mockups I did in Key Steps in Illustration.
It does raise the question of how do artists plan (and get funding for!) large-scale installation artwork or murals? I am sure for murals they will use a combination of mockups and photographs of previous projects. I looked more into the Longplayer installation featured in the previous exercise. There, they explored many different ways of creating the experience. That included this early CAD schematic exploring the bowls overhead:
After much deliberation, I decided that I would not continue down this path for two reasons:
I was not convinced that I would achieve the salient learning objecting of experiencing working at a large scale
Time constraints were now a factor. Done is better than perfect.
So instead, I decided to look at option two: panoramic photography. I started to organise a day out to various different locations which I thought might give me a good opportunity to explore capturing a sense of space through photographs.
Then, I realised that I have enjoyed taking panoramic photos for some time. When we bought our first flat, one of its defining appeals was the view across Greater London from the flat's sixth-floor balcony. On a good day, you could see both the Wembley arch and Canary Wharf! On new year's eve, the sky became a riotous explosion of celebration at midnight - it was more fun to stay in than go out.
So I looked back through my catalogue and was able to select many different panoramic photographs. Due to the wonders of modern phone technology, creating panoramas is much more accessible to the average photographer like me. My Google phono also lets me create 360° 'photo spheres' which it can stitch together. These images even have directional data, so you can use your phone or a VR device to move around the space as if you were standing in the same spot.
Here is the collection of my work:
For the interactive panoramas and 360 images, it's better to view them on Google Photos directly. You can find the album above, here.
Looking at my album, I see that my eye is often drawn to scenes with a distinct sense of space and horizon. In contrast, one of my favourite use of the 'photo sphere'' was on board the deck of HMS Warrior. It doesn't have the same sense of depth that some of the panoramas do, but it really has a sense of place. This is created, I believe, by the positioning of the sphere in relation to the mast. It gives a sense of the height and immensity of the wooden structure.
I think some of these spaces are simply magical to me. To relive the experiences, I have used a cheap VR set with my phone to see them again. I think if I were to try and exhibit some of these photos, I would provide a VR headset alongside the extruded 2D images so people can really get a better sense of space. I think it would be interesting to see if there was some way of creating a panorama with a stereoscopic camera to achieve an actual three-dimensional experience through VR.
I would like to revisit the public art concept in the future, so I am working on how I might integrate it with my project in section four.
Reference
Atelier One, 2002. Proposed mechanical version of Longplayer. [image] Available at: https://longplayer.org/img/rhs-bigmachine1000.jpg [Accessed 7 June 2022].
Comentarios