Various Ideas (sketches)

As a group we have decided to create the work for Light Nelson focusing on the issue of plastics in the oceans. We have had many ideas, most a variation of another, and all with the same theme and interaction, that being an area where the audience can walk through an environment, dimly lit, with various sizes or chips of plastic. The elements that are included in most of our installation designs are, light (which is a major part), reflections and projections of light, plastic, water, shadows, low lighting and public interaction. 

The most important ideas we had though were water, reflections, hanging things, recycled plastics and being able to walk through the installation. Our location to be able to hang plastics and for the public to walk through is also very important.

 

 

 

Images are our own.

Researching for ideas.

As a group we have shared a few artists that create light related installations, and one that I found had a particularly interesting style is Bruce Munro. I did a quick search on him and found some art that I feel relates well to some of the areas we are hoping to start experimenting with. ‘Light’, which consists of multiple installations, inside and out covers over 23 acres of land and  was on display in 2012 at Longwood Gardens, Kennet Square, USA. It was Munro’s first large-scale solo project, features a lot of reflective elements, water, and water like components really gave me some ideas that I think will help us as a group to start working with.(check the blog guys :P). Three of these were ‘Lightshower‘, ‘Arrow-Spring‘, and ‘Snowball‘.

I feel ‘Lightshower‘, creates a sensation of as if it were raining, it definitely tricks the mind into thinking it is looking at water. ‘Arrow Spring‘ also has a  resemblance  to a spring of water, which I think we could work with as our concept is on the pollution of our oceans and waterways. ‘Snowball‘ was more an inspiration to the more technical side of this project, the way Munro has formed these lights, gave me the idea of creating our own shapes and forms out of LED strip lights, (which we are already researching and planning on using), I think this just sparked a freedom of forming lights shapes rather than having to use only per-designed lights, or being restricted to creating forms out of individual lights. I am unsure of how the rest of the group thought about this, they may of already thought about using the strip LED’s in this way, however, for me it was a little glimpse of a ‘ah-ha’ or ‘we could do this’ moment.

Image 1 Left : ‘Lightshower‘

Image 2 Top Right: ‘Arrow Spring‘

Image 3 Middle Right: ‘Snowball‘

Image 4 Bottom Right: ‘Snowball‘ (view from below)

 

Choosing Installation Site

We decided to walk around campus to get an idea of suitable spaces for our work. Before we could progress with our ideas and planning we wanted to get an idea of the space it might inhabit, this way we could design something site specific.

We realised some of our initial ideas would not work well in certain locations, as we wanted to have hanging components and a space the viewer could walk through, we had these in mind when scouting a location.

These are the spaces we are interested in occupying:

All three of these locations on campus have the potential to fit with requirements. Though the preferred location is the long walkway. We think this walkway has the most potential for creating a new environmental habitat which will immerse the audience in our concept.

Chelsea, Bethan, Rachael.

Our inspiration . . .

“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men will never gather up all the plastic and put the ocean back together again.”

— Charles Moore, Marine Researcher

We feel this image is relevant to the theme we are planning to convey in response to the Light Nelson brief. We are planning on using recycled water bottles, reflections, water and colours to make a statement about the effects of plastics and consumption on our environment. Our environment is our Habitat.

We are going to create a contrast between the natural and the unnatural, urban/nature, industrial verses organic, we will bring these together to transform the state of both synthetic or manufactured materials and our natural habitat.

(Group post, Bethan Fletcher, Rachael Persico, & Chelsea Cameron)

Quote received on 11 April 2016 from, Moore, Charles. “Ocean Conservation Quotes – Famous Sea Quotes on Sea and Sky.” Sea and Sky – Explore the Oceans Below and the Universe Above. Last modified 2016. http://www.seasky.org/quotes/sea-quotes-ocean-conservation.html.

Image retrieved on 11 April 2016 from, INDIEGOGO, and ARCHIPELAGOS INSTITUTE OF MARINE CONSERVATION. “Save Our Seas from the Microplastic Threat.” Indiegogo. Last modified 2016. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-our-seas-from-the-microplastic-threat#/.