Trip to the Recycling Center

As we needed to source a huge amount of bottles to make up the sculpture, we headed to the recycle center to see if we could gather plastics from there. Even though we have been researching and know that society consumes plastics in enormous quantities, it had quite an impact seeing this for ourselves.

The share amount of plastic that we consume for just a small city is overwhelming, and this is only the plastics that are recycled, not counting what gets put in the rubbish.
The photo above only features a small amount of the plastics, these stacks of bound and squashed plastics goes for nearly a whole block concealed behind industrial buildings! After our second trip out to the recycling center to collect bottles for our wave, it dawned on us just how many we will have to collect. We brought back a large black rubbish bag full but after washing them all we counted just 71 and they only took up the space two small tables when on the ground side by side!

Images are our own.

 

 

Experimenting with Lighting

Experiments with our various materials and lighting are shown below.

These images show the different effect each of the plastics give off, these included milk bottles, clear juice bottles, cracker cases, and bubble wrap. The amount of light reflected from and through the plastic is important, as we will make a decision on the types of bottles to use dependent on.

We first tested the green, blue and white Christmas lights, shining them through juice and milk bottles. Then the seed lights and again white lights through cracker cases and bubble and foam wrap, these may be used to create the crest of the wave. We had to take into account how much we wanted the light to be able to be seen.
Through the milk bottles the light was diffused, with the clear bottles the lights were brighter but you could see them clearly through the plastic. The way the light reflected off the clear plastic was really interesting and quite beautiful.

Though the green lights looked impressive, we would like to use blue lights for the curve of the wave and white lights for the foam on the wave.

 

 

Images are our own.

Armatures

We have been looking at different ways to form our wave. A tutor suggested we look at armatures. Armatures are frameworks around which a sculpture is formed. It provides the strength and structure to a sculpture. We could build a wooden or metal armature to give our wave something to build our bottles up around. We have also considered using bamboo. When soaked a bit with water they can be shaped or bent into a curved shape. There is also welding rods we could use. See images below.

I found this blog post about an Elephant sculpture made up of parts of old trains, House for an Art Lover (HAL) in 2014 worked in collaboration with the Scottish artist Kenny Hunter. HAL commissioned the creation of a ‘life-size’ elephant. Pictures of their armature can be seen below.

(Images retrieved from “August | 2014 | Elephant for Glasgow.” Elephant for Glasgow | Kenny Hunter Creates Life Size Elephant in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Accessed , 2016. https://elephantforglasgow.wordpress.com/2014/08/.)

This is a really interesting project and definitely worth a look at their blog.

References:

“August | 2014 | Elephant for Glasgow.” Elephant for Glasgow | Kenny Hunter Creates Life Size Elephant in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Accessed , 2016. https://elephantforglasgow.wordpress.com/2014/08/.

 

 

Research – The Bristol Whales

This installation was made from locally harvested willow and 70,000 up-cycled plastic bottles, it features life-sized whales; installed at Millennium Square in Bristol, England.

This work, by an artistic group who go by Cod Steaks, was a major influence for this project, it inspired us to go larger than we were first planning in our initial designs.

We found this work inspiring, it is a very strong message they are portraying. Just like our own project, they wanted to make a statement about a subject that most of society brush aside, and have done so in a way that people cannot ignore. Cod steaks have produced something of impressive scale and visually interesting.

There is a video on the making of the Bristol Whales. 

Here are links to the blog that Cod Steaks created for this project: http://bristolwhales.tumblr.com/ and also to beautiful-lands  who wrote about it on their website

Reference:

Cod Steaks. “The Making of the Bristol Whales.” YouTube. July 30, 2015. Accessed May 13, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sKgXfPcd1M.

Cod Steaks. THE BRISTOL WHALES (blog). 2015. Accessed May 13, 2016. http://bristolwhales.tumblr.com/.

Beautiful-lands.com. “Whale Sculpture On Display In Bristol, UK.” Beautiful Lands. Last modified July 17, 2015. http://beautiful-lands.com/posts/whale-sculptures-on-display-in-bristol-uk#.VzU8O3q71_k.

Lets build a giant wave shall we?

After many ideas were discussed, discarded then discussed again we were going round and round in circles.
We began looking at images of the plastic waves and whales by Codsteaks, and we had a massive moment. This was our ‘Aha’moment.
We suddenly thought we need to go massive. Our project needed to be large and imposing. Our work was all about the plastic pollution in our oceans, the more we looked and researched the problem of plastics, the more it seemed huge and overwhelming.
It is a problem that many would feel they can’t do anything about. How do you deal with such a problem, where there are more particles of plastic in the oceans than plankton?
Our Light Nelson installment needed to produce this feeling of immensity, of feeling swamped by the plastics.
A giant wave made of plastic bottles and other bits of plastic was the way to go. We want it to be of a size to be above people’s heads when they see it and wide. Below are our sketches of the wave and rough measurements.

Experiments with Reflective Paint

While looking for lights we came across a ‘reflective spray paint’, this was quite exciting. We tested this on different materials to see what effect we could get.

‘Safety First!’, Photo: Rachael Persico

We discovered the paint was not how we expected, below are examples of how it came out quite bubbly and not with consistent coverage. Once dry it had a very grainy texture.

The result was quite different to what we expected, this being shiny, to glow more and more metallic. Though we did eventually find it to be quite reflective. The paint did not work on all materials, eating into the foam board and easily flaking off the plastic.
This is shown in the images below; white foam board, plastic cracker tray, black felt.

We found it worked best on a dark surface, being quite striking when the light fit it from the right angle.

Without Light

With Light

Above left is an example of the spray paint without light shining directly on it, right is the same example with light reflecting off the paint.

Team out.

Brainstorm

Here is our initial brainstorm for our topic habitat.

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.

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#/.