Three concepts for the Greenwich Project

The Brief: Create an eye catching and compelling multi-layered but small art installation ideally no larger than a metre³. It should convey the impact Britain’s navy has had on the country and its architecture

and will be displayed in the national maritime museum’s foyer. As the museum has high tourist attraction the target demographics shall be

tourists able to visit London and possibly from abroad with little English. They will most likely be middle aged visitors with an interest in

the naval influence on the country or alternatively children on school trips. The Installation must have the potential to appeal to all the

possible visitors and create a good first impression of the museum and what it has to offer.

Concept 1: (playing with perspective)An installation that only forms a certain image when you look at it from a certain position.

Inspired by the almost optical illusions in the painted hall.

Just as experimentation I created an image then chopped it up and arranged the pieces as can be seen on the left.Whilst I did create a playful three dimensional piece It did not have the desired effect. I discovered whilst making it how tricky it was to play with perspective as I wanted so I did some research.

I looked at the artist Felice-Varini (whose work can be seen above) and discovered that he created his work by using a projector and then painting over the projected image. He has discovered that by doing this he could place the guidelines of a 2D shape onto a 3D space, creating the perspective illusion

Concept 1: (playing with perspective)An installation that only forms a certain image when you look at it from a certain position.

Inspired by the almost optical illusions in the painted hall.

However I knew a projector wasn’t a resource I could be using all the time, especially not at home, so I experimented until I found an alternative method.

I used a camera with the intended shape created in masking tape on the display screen. By looking at my model through the display screen I whilst I drew the lines I found that I could produce the same effect.

Concept 2: (playing with layers)An installation that uses different layers of opaque and translucent materials to create a image that can be seen in many different ways and with hidden details.

Inspired by Zane Berzina’s Rustle piece (as seen above). I decided on a multi layered image that will display fragmented naval architecture and depictions of the thames.

Above you can see an initial plan/ experiment looking at the subjects for the different layers and the representation of the water and the sky. I will most likely create these on layers of acrylic for the installation. From this experiment however I realised that as water is such a complex thing to portray I should further experiment with representing it.

As you can see from above I looked at mixing ink with water to create movement and the representation of shadows. However whilst I like the colours I did not think it had enough texture so I plan to use the type of resin popular with model railway makers to give my water texture.

Concept 3: (Interactivity and time)As it is likely children will be visiting the museum I decided to think of an idea that is more interactive and might peak their interest as well as teach them about the history of some naval architecture.

Inspired by advent calendars I have seen around I began to consider an installation that has movable parts or flaps to represent what some of the naval architecture looks like now vs when it was built. Using Photoshop and aa craft knife I created the experiment/ trial run that can be seen above. However in doing so I realised that simply revealing windows etc. might not be very interesting. Therefor I decided that touch screen displays would be placed behind each flap meaning that the windows can be shown but also, when tapped, play short videos or animations teaching kids about the history of the place.

The installation will also need to be made of strong, sanded wood painted In bright colours to make it safe and appealing for children. I have decided that it will be an amalgamation of different elements from different examples of naval inspired architecture.