So freeing myself of that element for now allowed me to start visualising toward a flat 2d graphics piece. I expected that the challenge was going to be that I would be cast adrift without a client brief, but that the familiarity of the form would help me get going. What surprised me has been that I have maintained the commitment I had to try something new and so the visuals and ideas have moved towards the creation of an installation piece.
Below are some sketches of what, for now at least, I am moving towards creating.
What has been driving the progress in the last 2 weeks has been a desire to persist with unchartered territory for me creatively and to ensure that my VET focus of viewer experience and involvement stays at the forefront. So rather than launch in to the design and layout of a flat graphics piece about synaesthesia I have moved first to to address those issues. My next step now will be to fill the format with content drawn from my interpretation of the research. But first here are some drawings of the plan so far....
The first image shows an installation space, dark, with a light source / vertical light box at the far end of the space. Suspended from rails in front of the viewer are 6 panels output onto acetate. The facing panel introduces the notion of synaesthesia with the 5 panels behind featuring one sense per panel. As the design is output into acetate there will be a visual interplay between the layered panels. (I will give more detail on how this will work and the kind of typographic and image based interplay I have in mind later).
Each of the panels can be slid out individually. This allows the viewer to isolate a single panel and view it independent of the others so that text and imagery can be read more clearly.
The bottom image illustrates another aspect I am considering - that as an individual panel is slid out a noise/ sound will be generated by attached implements dragging across the surface of the floor. (For now I am picturing these as spoons ( to tie in with the sense of taste) grating along a barred surface - like when you walk past a iron railing dragging a stick along it. The visual impact of the sound element would be more subtle than it appears on this drawing... (and viewers will generally be in proportion!)
It will be up to the viewer to interact as they wish with the panels - viewing all 6 initially, then seperately or in any combination of their choice. Each layout will work as a stand alone piece, but with bounce off and visually play all other layers too - to varying degrees be it through type/image/colour interaction/ die cutting etc
I have sourced what I hope might work for the sliding mechanisms for the installation - they are triple track aluminium rails (I'll be using 2, so 6 layers in total). There will also be aluminium bars top and bottom to hold the acetate and give weight to the base. There will also be draw rods to pull the panels across without handing the acetate sheets themselves. I will post an image of them in the blog in the next few days. I intend on the panels being approx A1 in size, but until I have progressed more with the visuals that will remain open. I will let the design dictate the format of the panels.
I will post my progress in relation to concepts for the design and layout of the panels in the next day or two.
to steph
ReplyDeleteHi Steph,
Its interesting to see how this idea is developing for you. The thumbnail sketches make it very easy to see how the installation piece will work. And the notion of the sliding panels which the viewer will have to engage with is a great idea. I can even visualise how it would work with motion graphics, but of course that is coming from someone who is not trying to learn 'after effects'
Since I read your piece, ideas have been popping into my head, which I will share but I do realise that their is a very fine line between being a critical buddy and bombarding you with new ideas, that you may not wish to consider at all. So please take these suggestions at will. Sometimes its good to hear things if even to clarify that this is exactly what you don’t want!
Sooo. Would it be possible for the viewer to walk around the panels, essentially making it an interactive walk-through of the senses. eg, if I was to look at one panel and then push it aside and walk forward, which in turn would activate another slide to light up/make a sound/ give a smell!? (This is sounding like a kids, touch and feel book and that is not at all what I am trying to describe.) I just think they would interact with the viewer much more if each slide reacted to the viewers response.
Another idea was that depending on each viewers reaction the out come would be different. e.g. If I decided to push a slide to the left and someone else decided to push it to the right (playing on the left/right brain thing) the outcomes of the same slide could be completely different depending on what was on the slide behind the left or right? therefore giving a different experience to the different brains!
I think the hardest part of this may be capturing it all in a presentation for September. It will be quiet difficult to capture the physical experience of your piece in a presentation or is it your intention to make the presentation interactive also? I think you are going about it the right way way, planning and plotting the ins and outs of how it will work will raise problems and force solutions. It would probably be no harm to set up a ‘box’ prototype and use tracing paper/acetates to see how the design on them will integrate with each other.
PS. I saw those panels in IKEA catalogue yesterday. I have a screen shot taken of them for you, I’ll email it on.
Hi Audrey
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the feedback. Its great that you opened your comment with your being able to visualise it as a motion graphics piece - because like I said it's totally my intention to design a piece that will translate and evolve into the motion piece for me on the longer term with the masters course. I certainly am keeping my eye on that ball as I plan the installation and the design/layout of the panels.
In response to your suggestions - my initial intention was actually that the viewer would walk through the piece exactly as you describe - that they would pass through the installation itself but on researching the "do-ability" of this it became clear that for the interaction between the transparent layers to work there could not be such distance between them - they physically require proximity to each other and to the light source behind in order to be viewed with a degree of clarity. The challenge is also getting the output of the ink on them to have enough colour punch to hold their own - output onto acetate can often be wishy-washy and so I and busily researching various alternatives to try to ensure the maximum colour density. I have found a UK supplier that can output onto perspex and 'optically clear polyester' in large formats (cost here is a whole other problem), but I'm weighing the options.
In any case, for now there are limitations to the experience I can give the viewer necessitated by the need for the pieces to function as readable elements.
Your idea of a light / smell / noise motion activation is great, but would require sensors, switches and a set up that for now would be a stretch for me to achieve. I suppose the way I am attempting to integrate the sound is a low tech version of this!
Your other suggestion of pushing the slide to the left or the right and getting different outcomes is interesting too. I hadn't considered them moving to both sides so will definitely consider that. The notion you mention of the outcome being different depending on which panel the viewer decides to view in combination is covered though, as it's their decision which slides to place behind each other e.g you might choose to view touch/taste together and someone else might be more interested in sight/sound/smell combined.
You're right too in how difficult this might be to capture for September, I intend on setting the installation up and photographing it here. I know quite a few of the group will have issues with translating the physical piece onto an on screen presentation - we can console ourselves with the knowledge now that we will have a an end of year show where the physical pieces can have their moment in the sun! I don't envisage the September presentation being interactive as you suggest - again I love this idea but for now I am focusing on interaction in a physical rather than virtual way with a view to moving it on screen over the coming year. Shelagh mentioned some UX ideas to me also at the face to face and to be able to achieve that level of interactivity would be wonderful but I feel that that level of development would require me to be on a different masters course where the focus was solely on personal creative work to be able to give it that kind of time.
I had planned on designing the panels up in Photoshop and using the 'Multiply layers' effect to view the interplay between them but will definitely take on board your prototype suggestion too.
Thanks for the IKEA screen shot too - I was on the site yesterday but don't know if the images I chose are communicating it well enough.
Thanks for the feedback Audrey!