Transforming the space

We've really transformed the space into the final installation aesthetic with our props, research and other items. A low light level will help what is turning into a great atmospheric space. It had taken ages to get the research on the walls and the wiring done but we are just about ready to go!

The research

We have collected and ripped apart so many books in the research that are going on the walls and will be annoted by the character, this was massively time consuming but should look great on the walls. It all relates to the machines in abstract and wierd ways and should convey the obsessive mind of the character. All kinds of text and image he has used in some way to piece together and interpret the blueprints.

Making the circuits and programming the code

I made all the circuits for the electronic side, the LDR sensors, relays and Hbridge circuit as well as a paralell lighting circuit for inside of the praxinoscope. They are all relatively simple and the code has been adapted specifically for each machine ready for installation. The code below has yet to be set up with the correct threshold of light and timings as this will be done shortly before finishing the whole thing.

We are also thinking of adding in some servo circuits at the last minute to turn the projectors on and off perhaps also using an LDR!

NOTE: I'LL EMAIL THE CODE AS IT WON'T LET ME PUT IT ON HERE (HTML PROBLEM)

Mike Nelson - The Coral Reef

Got an email from Matts Gallery today informing me the coral reef was now on display in tate britain! Great news as it is one of the main contextual works for our own project... unfortunately it has been delayed due to health and safety concerns. Will have to go after the deadline now, really does go to show how difficult it is to get an installation into a 'safe form' fit for public exhibition though.

Building the praxinoscope machine

We've been working on the praxinoscope machine for a while now, we saw some good examples in the V&A museum of childhood that helped us out a bit. I decided to use part of an upturned childs bike for the turning mechanism with the motor attachment directly mounted onto it, I then mounted a circular pan onto the rim of the wheels and Faysal made the 12 faced middle segment to stick on the mirror.  The mechanism works great and hasn't jammed the whole time its been running which was my main concern.

The mirror itself proved a bastard to cut but i got it done in the end, some of the pieces were a bit rough around the edges which fits the DIY aesthetic we're going for anyway.

I measured up the legs and cut them to size before drilling and bolting them onto the boiler... it seems to stand up okay but we are taking real care when moving it around as copper is not a particlarly rigid metal. Once the two different segments were complete (the tank lifts onto the praxinoscope) we had to work out how the viewer was going to view the animation as it is in the bottom of the boiler and the viewer looks in near the top. We picked up an old childs periscope or... hall of mirrors according the blueprints... at the bootfair and have mounted that inside. We did explore other options but this was the most effective. We delensed some binoculars and fitted them into the tank looking into the periscope that then looks onto the mirrored praxinoscope and YES! We have been working on this machine a long time and it was the most fiddly and tricky thing to get right in the installation, now it is near completion it is really looking fantastic, i'm going to make a lighting circuit we can put inside to control first the light coming on and then the motor turning so that when the praxinoscope machine is not on you cannot see the animation cell prematurely!

Building the transmission machine

The transmission machine design didn't come to us for ages but once it did it was decided we would build a kind of ariel, transmitter / pylon. It required quite a bit of welding so we designed it up with sizes and ordered the steel rods. After they had arrived I marked out all the steel and cut them to size by hand ready to weld. As dave in the metal workshops can only have one person welding at a time, we welded it and I held + decided on the position of the rods. After the initial frame went up the top was too wide so I took the decision to shorten it to bring it to more of a point which now looks much better.

After it was completed we transported it by van back to the space we attached the ariels and other props that make up the machine, Faysal and Andy attached the arms that link the two other machines to this central machine (figure.3) and dressed it with wires etc. It is looking pretty imposing and is a great size for the little room. Good stuff.

Building the boot machine

We sketched out the cam design and I got dave to weld a motor attachment for the cam shaft. We then set about testing different size and shaped cams on the rod to try and get the hitters moving as we want without stressing the motor too much. After finally finding the right ones, we cut them out and attached them. We first used temporary hitters before making the real hitters with items collected over the project, one of which is really heavy but the motor seems to be able to cope.

We built the frame and tested it all out without water. It was working but working a bit fast so we've changed the voltage going into it to slow down the hitters, ideally it would be turning as slow as possible but if they get stuck in the installation and the bolts come off then we are in trouble so we haven't gone too low, it is a fine balance.

For the microphone spool we found an old 16mm film spool, attached the motor (which needs the H-bridge circuit) and drilled holes for the microphone coil before mounting it on the ceiling, This works really nicely and drops the microphone down into the water at a really nice speed just how I always imagined it to look.

We've filled the tank with water and it is looking really murky and reflective, we might add some black colouring to make it even darker but this is undecided as of yet! The main thing is it all seems to be working, we're just waiting on some motors to be delivered before it is all ready.

 

The praxinoscope animation

We all decided on a boat at sea for the animation within the praxinoscope and andy + faysal did some sketches which looked pretty good, I really wanted to make it a 3D animation using several layers to really make the scene come alive. This was deemed too time consuming and tricky, however on reflection the handrawn, simple, childlike aesthetic of the animation goes well with the, escape fantasy of the character and it looks great now it is coloured!

Table jackpot!

So I was rummaging in a skip looking at this old fire door to make a table out of... got chatting to a guy who it turns out was clearing out the old print makers nextdoor and let us have ANYTHING we wanted. It had some great benches and little tables and other materials that were perfect and all for free. LEGEND.

Bit of a logistical nightmare carrying it back but we got it home in the end, great find!

Building the dark room

To build the characters dark room (and make something of the dodgy kitchen units in the corner of the room) I built a frame from some 4x4 cm and screwed it upright. We then used found boards, cut to size to complete the walls. A cardboard ceiling was put in later and was dressed with the black and white photo's from the cult shoot and the darkroom stuff we obtained from the bootfair! It should look great within the context of the rest of the installation.

Blueprints made!!

We spent much of the morning today making the blueprints having finalised the designed and printed them onto two sheets of a3 acetate per blueprint (triple layered). Me and Faysal coated the paper with the UV reactive chemicals yesterday, allowing 24 hours to dry so that they were ready for printing this morning. We took the paper in a lightsafe box over to the textiles department and used their UV light press machine which was great, we stuck the tripled up acetate to the glass face down, then when we were happy it was all matched up we put a layer of the coated paper on top and closed the lid. We used the built in vacuum press which compacts the layers down dead flat onto the glass and exposed it for 3 minutes 10 seconds to the UV.  The paper is then transported back in a lightsafe box for 10 minutes of washing under cold water before being hung to dry (see images for the illustrated process).

We first did a test to make sure it was all working okay which came out perfectly before proceeding to print all three full size blueprints. They have come out so well, so much better than I thought they would and i'm pretty chuffed we've managed to set about and complete this process to give us some authentic, original documents that play an integral role in the narrative of the installation. Since I first researched and proposed this idea I've been hoping we could follow it through to completion and it has proved extremely satisfying; I think its fair to say we're all really pleased with the results.

We spent the rest of the afternoon building the praxinoscope.

Weekly schedule 03 / 05 / 10

Monday  (Andy at work):

• Make final adjustments to blueprints and divide up ready for copying to acetate on tuesday morning
• Gather wood at the space
• Explore praxinoscope in more detail, carry out some testing
• Get table for transition machine
• Finalise design + specific measurements for transition machine tower

Tuesday (Andy at work):

• Buy more paper in atlantis first thing
• Copy blueprints onto acetate
• Give Dave final design and measurements for transition machine tower
• Cut rod 10cm longer than cam-shaft for pivot on boot machine
• Do cyanotype printing of blueprints
• Move stuff out of J.1.17 to hackney with Bedford in evening

Wednesday:

• Praxinoscope + Bootmachine construction (mounts and mechanisms)
• Start working together the research
• Send Chris directions to space, confirm time and email andy about long-play tapes!

Thursday:

• Praxinoscope + Bootmachine construction (have working by end of day)
• Build darkroom into the space
• Carry on working with the research

Friday:

• Chris visits the space
• Have both machines working
• Start working on circuits and code
• Build microphone spool
• Plan sound recordings and VHS

We need tables!

One of our last main concerns re: materials, is the severe shortage in tables we have managed to get hold of. There are obvious practical problems of local pick up anywhere outside of London which is where most  seem to be, they have to look right too, fit the setting.

We've been scouring ebay etc for quite some time and have yet to make a purchase, annoyingly at the bootfairs all the regular sellers have great tables that would be perfect... but they use them to sell all their stuff and are too expensive to replace with modern ones so they never sell.

We have considered making our own tables but this would be time consuming and may look a bit over the top (aswell as being a bit dodgy). A sensible compromise seems to be the use of builders trestles and making our own table top, we need atleast 2 long tables and a smaller table within the installation.

If we concentrate on getting some trestles cheap, we can get free wood or cheap recycled scaffolding boards to make the table tops fairly easily. I've found some sources we could use for this: www.lwrp.org.uk / www.communitywoodrecycling.org.uk / some guy in E2 selling 3m planks £5 each.

Something like this:

Blueprint designs

We have drawn up blueprint designs for the three machines at last, ready to copy onto acetate and cyanotype print; me and beve selected some really perfect paper (A3) with rough edges and a handmade feel for the job. I'm really hoping this works as it will be great to produce authentic documents for the installation, I found this magazine on flickr that was cyanotype printed in full which gives me more confidence in what we are trying to achieve:

Faysal and Andy mainly worked on them, adding my input in a more editorial role. It took a while but bar a few last minute tweaks they are pretty much there. I like the interplay between the hand drawn aesthetic and the official validity of the format through which they will be produced,  a document which was designed to be mass reproduced.

Boot Machine:

Praxinoscope Machine:



Transition Machine:

Super8 handed in for processing

We delayed the processing of the Super8 film so we could shoot some more 'three' sequences of three people standing together that we can loop and scratch out the middle persons face on the film in relation to the research on vietnamese myths.

We have shot a few different sequences and may end up using one or all of them in some kind of montage, this will become clear when we get the footage back on Friday the 14th of May, allowing us enough time to edit and loop the films.

Welded work

Having finalised the designs for the machines and worked out how we want the mechanisms to work, I handed over the job of welding us some windscreen motor attachments to Dave Grover in the metal workshops. He has performed this task for us before but with different applications and always seems to come through for us. On the half-bike wheel for the praxinoscope he has made an attachment for the motor to drive the crank and welded some metal guides for the chain as the tension tends to fluctuate. It should now just be a case of getting the tension in the chain right and making last minute tweaks to have it running smoothly and consistantly.

The other attachment for the cam shaft is a more simple procedure and should work with relatively little fuss.

We have also discussed the welding of the transition machine tower, we wanted to do it ourselves after some tuition but he thinks it would be best to let him get on with it which isn't all bad. We've ordered the metal rods for the construction which should arrive early next week so we can submit final measurements and allow him a few weeks to knock it up.

Black and white printing

Me and Faysal have spent the day printing the black and white 35mm roll from the shoot in the dark rooms. They all came out really well with a few surprises, we pretty much printed all of them although there are a few that we will not use; one image in particular where 3 / 4 of the image is consumed with darkness and only the treeline above the bodies can be made out could be used to suggest a paranormal end to the cult!! They came out really contrasty and we didn't assign much formality to the border of the prints to emphasise the amateaur processes of the characters own dark room work.

It is pretty exciting to see the first result from the shoot coming together and a good step towards the finished installation. In a similar way to the processing a few days ago, it was great to be back in the dark rooms printing which I haven't had much time to do in ages.

Black and white processing

As the uni only processes colour photographic films, it was up to us to process the black and white 35mm roll ourselves. I used to be pretty good at this in first year and do it on quite a regular basis but having stepped back into the processing rooms for the first time in a few years, it didn't exactly flood back.

After much indecision, I decided to process the film and although it didn't exactly go seamlessly, much to my relief it worked and we didn't lose the film. It all came back to me in the end and was a good opportunity to re-learn the skills of processing film before I graduate from Uni.

The negatives themselves all look pretty good on the lightbox and I can't wait to get in the darkroom and print them now.

Shoot - 21 / 04 / 10

We started really early to make sure all costumes, props and food was ready for when the extra's arrived, we booked a room in A block to use as a changing / green room for the morning. After a short nervous wait, we had 6 extras and Davey T turn up (plus we planned to use ourselves face down too). He really looked the part, we set about getting everyone into appropriate costumes then all headed up with the props to the location in the woods.

As soon as we arrived we set about setting up the shoot, I dressed the set and sorted out props whilst Andy made tin foil hats and Faysal started shooting slides. When everything was ready we placed the actors and set up the first shot with the super8; after agreeing on the angle / tempo of the shot, Faysal and Andy joined the bodies face down to be a part of the frame. I shot a number of different takes before shooting some of the black and white 35mm. At this point I switched roles with Faysal so he could take another series of takes and shoot some more 35mm while the scene was set.


Having got what we needed for the first part of the shoot, we set about organising little set up shots all shot on 110 in an informal manner, we all had a 110 camera each and worked quickly to capture what we needed from the different scenarios and from different angles in an intentionally amateur style. Confident we had everything in the can we needed we wrapped the extras and finished with a recording of the final speech from the leader. We probably won't end up using this as Daves voice wasn't exactly suitable but was good to capture none the less, the other elements of the shoot appeared to go really well, the 110, super8 and b&w 35mm will all hopefully look great. Now it is a case of getting it all processed and printed.

Pre-shoot preperations

Having agreed on the direction of the major side-narrative, we have organised a shoot for the 21st April, we need to get this done ASAP as the film takes 2 weeks for processing.

We have secured an actor from Starnow who fits the role of cult leader pretty well (Davey T.), so we are attempting to gather up appropriate extra's who have the desired look. As it is only a short shoot we will hopefully be able to gather enough people (5 / 10) but everyone is extremely busy at the moment. We've got some costumes picked up for free at the carboot which will work including a fetching suit for the Leader himself and i've secured the super8 camera that I know works well from my minor project.

We have also collected the props together that we will need, including making some 'paranormal sensing' contraptions, which will all eventually end up as part of the installation / transition machine.

The location we have scouted is in the mystical forest the otherside of northwick park hospital, we found a great clearing with a compound wall in the background and huge cut logs in the foreground which will be great for the scene. Weather forecast is good, we are all set to go.

Narrative development

As we were discussing possible side-narratives to express within the installation we came up with some ideas that we intend to convey using the media like super8, cassette/magnetic tape and photographs. 


The first of which involves a paranormal activity cult who use their somewhat speculative equipment to sense activity in the area in which the installation is based. Having approached our character, they identify some of the symbols on the blueprints through the doorway of the space. Apprehensive and paranoid he shuns them and they leave. After some considerable time obsessing over their ability to answer the questions he has over the blueprints and thus, the machines, he decides to head back out to their camp which he had previously visited and scouted from a distance (unseen).  When he returns to the camp he discovers that they have committed what appears to be a mass suicide in the style (but not scale) of the jonestown massacre. He takes some photographs of the scene, which he will go on to print later in his personal darkroom, gathers their equipment and heads back. He uses their research and devises to gain a supposed understanding of the third blueprint and builds the transition machine.

The footage we'll take and the different media we use will define the different perspectives on the event which will be fragmented across the installation in different forms. The super8 loop will consist of a quick pan down and across the group all face down, dead, a brief, uneasy moment which could be seen to represent a lasting memory the character has of the event. The 110 photographs printed about postcard size will be shots taken by the cult members whilst in the camp and will form part of the research / material he takes from the scene; these will all be informal, natural and amateurish to try and reinforce this. The black and white 35mm will be a much more literal account of what he finds when he returns to the camp, shots he has taken, developed and printed himself (in the darkroom built into the space). 


This will all be woven together using text and sound clips, such as the final speech of the leader etc to form a more complete sense of narrative through exploration of the space. This also creates a link between our last installation Waiting Room and our current work, a kind of much further developed version of the snapshot available before; this is not too important but it is nice to develop older narratives through the continuation of new work.


The second side-narrative will make the link between the text-still image based research and a literal application of the vietnamese '3' myth. We intend to use a short loop of three individuals, perhaps a sequence of different sets of 3, and scratch out the middle characters face in each.


The VHS and other sound pieces are still up for discussion.

Professor James Lovelock

I saw a pretty interesting and relevant documentary about this Lovelock professor who has made huge contributions to science and our understanding of the world by turning his back on the scientific institutions and working from his homemade laboratory in a devon country cottage.

One of his most noted and controversial contributions is the theory of Gaia which proposed the planet as a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep itself healthy by controlling the chemical and physical environment. He has made many other huge contributions to human knowledge over his career... all from his little homemade lab in devon. He is definitely an eccentric chap, the kind of visionary that can channel his eccentricity and passion to make new discoveries and change beliefs... proving you don't have to be working for major scientific institutions to do so.

He really struck a chord with the idea of our own character in his own space being left to his own devices (although ours is based around a more obsessive belief in more speculative subject matter). Good stuff professor.

Collection at home

As we were having problems attaining the kind of key materials we need to build the structure of the machines out of I went back home to Somerset to try and hunt some down in breakers yards and farmers fields.

I have managed to get a big square, metal tank that will be perfect for the boot machine, an old oil drum potentially for the praxinoscope machine (although Andy has sourced an old boiler which sounds promising), an old TV ariel which looks good, a standing metal cupboard and lots of other bits that will be useful.

Bringing my car up with the stuff for two weeks so we can move everything in when we get the space.

VHS loops

So we spent a day on the VHS loop tests to try and discover how feasible it would be. They did not go too well, the problems we encountered were with the temperamental nature of the technology, if something isn't exactly right then they VHS players just eject eject eject. This was frustrating, very fiddlely and proved to be too much trouble for what its worth. As a result, we have decided to use long-play 8 hour VHS tapes for the duration of the installation instead which is not a bad compromise.