Once we brought all the samples together we started to try out different combinations to see what would be the most effective way to create our 3D picture and try projecting through the piece.
We found that projection was possible as long as one of our layers was semi-transparent by using tracing paper or sanding down the surface. I really liked the effect of projecting through the layers of acrylic, there seemed to be a ghostly effect or like a hologram. It was really interesting especially with the layers of acrylic held together in a block with extra layers to divide the layers with detail. When the layers are held apart the extra blank layers aren’t necessary. Unfortunately the rest of the group felt it was not worth projecting as we didn’t have a good enough reason to include it.
Although we decided against projecting we still liked the effect of light shinning through the layers and we experimented with this using glass with ceramic transfers of pictures taken in Hulme over the years.
At first we liked the idea of keeping all the layers of glass together in a pile with a light source below because the edges of the glass looked so good. But if we kept them close together the image quality would suffer, there wouldn’t be as much depth and it wouldn’t be as easy to see between each picture. So we then moved onto finding a way to hold the layers together with gaps between them.
We made models of possible stands using cardboard and experimented with the number of slides to use and size of gaps between each layer. For the pictures we used acetate as a quick substitute for the glass. They were very effective and acetate could be an option for our final piece instead of glass. Because the acetate is so thin it’s almost like it isn’t there and the pictures are just floating on their own.
We used both coloured and black and white pictures to compare. They both had their merits, the black and white were very detailed and clear so the layers really looked like a three dimensional picture, you could see the distance from the front layer to the back but there weren’t any over powering layers that blocked out the rest. The coloured pictures weren’t as clear and it was more difficult to see each individual layer but there was a hazy atmosphere and the colours were very vivid and all the layers came together to make one solid picture.
During this week we also decided that instead of pictures from different times in Hulme we wanted to over lay pictures of Stretford Road. Each picture is at a different interval along the road but once each picture is lined up so the road is in the exact place in each picture, it will seem as though you are traveling down the road through Hulme. In a way I see it as our journey too Hulme which we have repeated so many times over the course of this project. The inspiration for this came from the work by photographer Corinne Vionnet and a video by Ze Frank called, 2601 People Wrote This Song.
http://www.corinnevionnet.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROkrrYYkUhQ
In the next week (starting the 29th) we worked on making prototypes out of the possible materials we could use for the final piece. The picture slides were made in glass, both black and white and colour, and the stand in wood and acrylic.
We also had a tutorial that week and looking back I feel like, as a group, we didn’t acknowledge the advice given. We were disusing the possibility of the final piece being interactive so people could swap and change the slides so they could make their own combination. This triggered lots of suggestions on how to change the piece to make that more possible but after it just seemed like we went oh never mind let’s just carry on the exact same as we were.
Personally I liked some of the suggestions. There were suggestions on size, materials and how to be interactive or not. If it’s going to be interactive have it has too be smaller, it can’t be glass but my group wants glass and it to be bigger. But why can’t we have both. One bigger piece made from wood and glass and with it a smaller piece made from acrylic that people can pick up and move, change the slides. They would be completely opposite from each other. That way everyone gets what they want and I feel like if we did just put the piece on it’s own it just won’t have the same impact.
Unfortunately the group was divided on this and we just left things the way they were before the tutorial.
Laura Simone Scott 