Site Specific
M at t
McGough
Site Specific
RESEARCH
Site specific art is unique pieces of art work or instillations that either relate to the locations the art work or instillations that appear in only one specific location. “Illuminating York” is a yearly festival that uses light projection to light up buildings in York such as York Minister. This picture shows the Minister being covered in a stained glass effect. This relates to the location as York Minister is known for its stained glass windows. Another site specific art work is this interactive Tetris instillation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This was made by using code-able lights in each of the 153 windows that would light up the window with a set colour to form each of the blocks. Players would then play the game using a podium. However I thought these ideas were too big, and would be unrealistic to produce in the real world. So I decided to look at a smaller scale idea. I googled Lego street art and found artwork by “dispatchwork”. It uses Lego to fill the cracks in the walls. This idea is scalable and can be used in different size cracks and spaces to make either subtle or more grander interventions. Dispatchwork has a mission brief to brighten up dull and grey cities using shiny and colourful kids toys - or plastic construction bricks (namely Lego or Mega Blocks). His work fixes broken walls whilst adding colour to dull grey cityscapes, giving Page 2
people a chance in the stiff and rigid world of cityscapes to express the creativity and colourfulness of themselves via a hands-on creative process. He has put PCB’s (plastic construction bricks) into cracks in buildings and walls around the world ranging from cities such as Zurich, Berlin, and Belgrade to Taipei, St Petersburg, Santiago and New York. His idea of using colourful toys to inspire the creativity in individuals is something I want to imitate as well as the cracks in dilapidated and aging buildings. However to avoid a direct copy I will use pictures rather than Lego.
Matt Mcgough
Copyright is a legal principle aimed to protect the creator of original work and enable the author to profit from it. Copyright usually gives the author exclusive rights to distribute and use of the product – whether this is artwork, photography, sound recordings, music, or pieces of literature. This gives the creator
ETHICS OF COPYRIGHT legal protection and means that he can begin to earn money from 2nd or 3rd parties paying him (the creator) to distribute or use his product. The creator may also sell the rights to a particular piece to gain financially, for example a photographer may sell the rights to a particular photograph or set of photographs to a newspaper or magazine for the magazine to then use in a publication. Copyright aims to give the author the most protection and the most control of his work. Anybody found to breach this copyright can be taken to court – whilst copyright infringement is a civil matter (and therefore fought through the civic courts) criminal sanctions can be applied in certain jurisdictions. Most countries and jurisdictions offer certain exceptions from the copyright protection as long as it is ‘fair usage’ – often allowing users to “breach” the copyright agreement, without penalisation, the common exemptions are for when the image or piece in question is being used for
educational purposes. Copyright may also be waived, if used by non-profit or charity organisations – a prosecution is unlikely to follow from non-commercial use. However, exactly what a ‘fair use’ is not entirely black and white and this can be contested in court. Copyright and intellectual property disputes have started to become high profile with the growth of digital media and Internet distribution. The main ethical debate with copyrighting is what is “fair use” and crediting the author and who owns the rights to the product. A well known copyright court battle was started by Shepard Fairey. He used a picture of Barack Obama and turned into a campaign poster for Obama’s re-election but he was sued by the photographer and her agency claiming copyright infringement, Fairey claimed it was a fair use as he had found the image on Google Image Search, and failed to credit the image. Fairey counter-sued but admitted to using Mannie Garcia’s photo for the Associated Press.
Site Specific
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PROPOSAL
My proposal for the site specific project is to use the cracks in the plasterwork or broken pieces of the faces of the buildings as a canvas. These canvases would be used to give people a chance to escape the drab greys and boring day-to-day routine of metropolises that cities have become. This will be achieved by cutting out images of rural or tranquil locations that can be seen as places to escape to. This includes things like beaches, parks and countryside locations; when combined these images and locations can offer an escape whilst remaining in the heart of the city. Hopefully the ingenuity and concept of this idea as well as the dash of warm and welcoming colours compared to the greys that buildings are often covered in will brighten up someone’s day, trigger memories of holidays or day trips to the seaside, and cheer them up. This will be achieved by going out and taking photos of cracks in buildings that reveal something underneath rather than just a thin crack. Then I will need to go out and take photos of the escape locations such – mainly parks and green spaces but may also include recreational events such as football stadia or bowling. Then in Photoshop I will edit the photographs to make it appear that the escape locations are just on the other side of the crack or wall, as if the crack were big enough people could walk into another world almost. This will then give me an idea of what it will look like if I were to cut it out and post the picture in the cracks of the building to use in real life.
Matt Mcgough
PROOF OF CONCEPT IMAGES These are some of my trial images that demonstrates that my concept works. None of these images are my own but composing them together was my work. I found the cracks in or holes first then used different images beneath them. I then cut out the cracks or holes using the quick selection tool and deleting the desired area, altered the scale and position of the ‘escape’ image to fit. I then added the shadow on top of the escape but under the cracked layer to add realism and a sense of depth by using a feather edged brush and following the shape of the crack or hole.
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Site Specific
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Matt Mcgough
Bird bin was created by taking 3 shots of the bin which had a hole burned into the back - revealing a window to the household waste inside, discarded by the occupants. The picture of the crow was taken in Park Square and the bin was found at the back of a house near college. Open the bin picture, select everything in the hole and delete. Then I placed a picture of the crow between these two layers and altered scale and position to reveal the crow. I then added another layer for the shadow on top of the crow but underneath the top bin layer. I chose these two images because of the different shades of green involved from the bin and the grass and the picture of the crow is quite quirky.
BIRD BIN
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Site Specific
This is probably one of my favourite and strongest set of compositions. This is due to the use of negative space as well as the size of the image. There is quite a lot of negative space within the image (quite a lot of blank wall). So the eye is naturally drawn to the relatively small hole in the wall which was just a chunk of broken render. Also the composition of the photograph leads to a rough ‘rule of thirds’ layout with the cloud sitting on the line down the right hand third. I think there is also quite a nice
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balance between the applied shadow, the photo of the cloud and the exposed and unpainted plaster work beneath where the render would be. The colours also work very well together. Most of the wall is covered in shade during a gloriously sunny day so the white wall has a blue tint to it. This works well with the white in the cloud, the blue sky around the cloud, the greys in the lamppost and the unshaded white painted parts of the wall, this subtle colour combination works well and leaves the blue from the sky to stay strong against the bluey grey cast on the wall.
Matt Mcgough
WALL CLOUD
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Site Specific
02 stone wall
This is one of the more subtle combinations I have produced, this is because the space to ‘escape’ through was much smaller compared to other compositions and due to the depth of the wall there had to be more shadow used to make it look more realistic. I chose to put the o2 academy behind it because I liked the opposing nature that the two images create when put together. The picture of the wall creates is one of old, dilapidated buildings that have been weathered over decades and has aged poorly. The o2 academy however, is a more recent addition to the city, and Page 10
this picture creates the opposite image opposed to the brick wall. It is a new sleek, modern building and looks much newer and younger than the wall in front of it. This juxtaposition can symbolise that there is new in all of us - akin to the saying teaching an old dog new tricks. This is quite iconic of Leeds as it is a city that started to boom on the wool trade in Victorian times but has now become one of the top urban centres in the country in terms of culture and lifestyle.
Matt Mcgough
Door frame Coffee
This is a more subtle imposition, it fits into a small piece of flaky paintwork in a doorway in a corridor in college. I think this less in your face approach would work well if the image were to be fly posted in reality, because it allows people to stumble upon it themselves rather than it being forced onto them. The image is of two cups of coffee from Starbucks - lots of people feel more relaxed sipping coffee in Starbucks and this fits with my theme of escaping. The warm colours of the coffee table and the mugs offer a subtle contrast with the greys of the corridor, this offers a chance to relax in the warmth even if it just recollection.. This looks like its what could be on the inside of the room that is on the other side or inside of the door-frame.
This is wall chess, again this a more subtle composition and fits into a small hole in the wall. It spreads across the two holes to give a continuation - as if it were behind the wall. This image isn’t as strong as the image is less recognisable and not necessarily popular, but the idea of the continuation is a good one.
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Site Specific
Wall flower Wall flower is a stronger image because I think the colours work well together, the greenish colour under the flaky paint work blends well with the colour of the stems and leaves in the photo, and the white flowers offer good contrast with the darker parts of the photograph and the shaded parts from the wall and stairs.
The photography of the flower could work well on its own, especially with the shallow depth of field, out of focus background and the focus on the flowers which were side lit by a low sun. The contrast with the run down urban part of the composition strengthens the image and fits exactly with what I aimed to achieve.
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This is Pink Flower Graffiti. It features a pink flower in a hole on a wall covered in graffiti tags. The physical condition of the wall and the graffiti give a very dirty, grunge, and urban feel - the complete opposite of the pink flower which gives an impression of delicacy, and femininity. The contrast between these two impressions works well. The greens, yellows and pink of the flower also give a good colour contrast with the greys, blacks and the other neutral tones of the wall. The yellow, green and pink in the flower serve
Matt Mcgough
PINK FLOWER Graffiti
to brighten up the wall and add a point of interest to it. The photography of the flower gives the composition strength as the eye is drawn towards the flower even though it takes up little of the space compared with the rest of the photograph. Taking a range of photos from a variety of angles and distances gives a more realistic impression of what it would look like if this were real, and the flowers were on the other side of the wall the differing angles give a good sense of perspective.
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Site Specific
RIVER
River uses the continuation concept that I had explored with ‘Wall Chess’. This uses bigger holes and there are two different photographs with two different angles. The hardest part of this was trying to get the angles right between the two montages to make it look realistic. I do think that the different angles from the different photograph gives a better representation and uncovers more of the photograph. The shift in perspective between the two photographs and the different angles adds to the realism, the two photos are on different angles would show different aspects of the background as shown in the different pieces. I chose these two images because you can see the river around the corner from this wall. If there were holes in this wall you might be able to see the river through these holes. Page 14
The colours of the river pictures and the wall offer a contrast - the river pictures have quite a blue tint, whereas the wall are quite pale and neutral with white or green colours. The shading was quite difficult as the holes in the wall, because of the hole wouldn’t cast a shadow on parts of the picture such as the sky or the building in the background, but the shading behind the wall adds depth to the piece.
Matt Mcgough
Tree wall flower
interesting. Again, the two different aspects of the composition, offer quite a contrast. The walls are quite neutral in a colour, being grey and having quite a grey and neutral sky, allows the multicoloured nature of the flowers to shine stronger. These colours as well as the greens from leaves contrast from the greys of the wall and the other grey colours in the crack. The angle of the photography for the wall has captured some of the depth in the wall, as well as the added depth created by the shadow I added.
Tree Wall Flower is possible the most effective piece that I created. The crack and hole in the wall was the best one that I found. The shape, size and location of the crack and hole in the wall, meant I had a bit more scope to find a good image to put into the crack. The shape being tall, narrow and irregular meant that the image I could put in it could have been anything. It being tall and narrow meant that my photography could be portrait - the same shape of trees. The width of the crack also meant that there was some scope to use landscape photography, so the crack was revealing part of a wider scene. The irregular shape just made it a bit more
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Site Specific
Yellow
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Matt Mcgough
Yellow, is another continuation piece. The parts of the wall where the paint work has bubbled up and started to flake off has revealed a part of a garden where the only visible element is the one yellow plant and part of the sky. The dull, neutral colours used to decorate the walls paint the walls have lost their gloss after years of weathering, meaning that the colours from the sky and the flowers stand out more, the contrast of colours is the reason why these two images work well together in my opinion, as they brighten up what would have been a dull, monotone wall.. The framing effect that the holes have on the sky means that you cannot see the whole picture. So when it came to positioning the sky I wanted to keep a small part of the clouds uncovered, this makes it look like the wall is then covering up part of the image. There is also a subtle change in the cloud pattern between the two images where the sky and clouds are visible, thus giving the illusion that the sky is real and that the clouds have moved between the taking of the photographs. The original image of the flowers was landscape and did not extend up enough for the top hole to be covered without losing the resolution and crisp detail on the flowers. This problem was resolved when I added in another picture of the sky and tweaked the colours slightly to have a more blended look. Again the shading was added to add depth to the work which would have looked more flat without.
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Site Specific
WALL GARDEN This is possibly the strongest piece that I have created. It features a flowerbed underneath the broken render or plaster that has come away from the side of the house. The other parts of the street furniture such as the girder at the bottom and the post for the street sign also add to the depth of the piece, this meant adding shadow behind the pole which was taken out when editing the picture of the wall. Another reason this piece works so well is size and shape of the hole - it allowed me to show more of the picture of the flowers. The clarity of the image as well as the direction of the light on the
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photography gives a really good picture, adding a variety of shade and highlights. It also adds to the variety of colours - making the photo more colourful boosting the contrast between the colourful nature of the flowerbed and the rather bland and neutral tones from the wall. The photography from the other angles, especially the widest shot of the street gives a great impression of the composition. That particular photo is great because flowers are not the main focus of the photo, yet the eye notices it, and it brightens up the street and hopefully the viewers day.
Matt Mcgough
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LOCATIONS
Bird Bin: Bin - Denison Road (near Leeds City College Park Lane). Bird - Park Square, Leeds. Wall Cloud: Wall - small ginnel/pathway off Aire Street (near Leeds Train station). Cloud - sky above Leeds city centre. O2 Stone Wall: Wall - Denison Road (near Leeds City College Park Lane). O2 Academy - O2 Academy Cookridge Street, Leeds. Doorframe Coffee: Doorframe - Internal doorframe, Leeds City College Park Lane. Coffee - Starbucks phonebox advert Leeds City centre.
Pink Flower Graffiti: Graffiti Wall - Little Woodhouse Street, near Leeds General Infirmary and University of Leeds. Flower - Park Square, Leeds. River: Wall - small ginnel/pathway off Aire Street (near Leeds Train station). River - banks of the River Aire, photo taken from small ginnel/pathway off Aire Street (near Leeds Train station). Tree Wallflower: Wall - Little Woodhouse Street, near Leeds General Infirmary and University of Leeds. Trees and flowers - The side of Leeds Town Hall, corner of Oxford Place and the Headrow. Yellow: Wall - back of 39 Hanover Avenue. Flower - flowerbed in Park Square, Leeds.
Wall Chess: Wall - Internal wall, Leeds City College Wall garden: Park Lane. Wall - Junction of Kendal Lane and Chess - Outside Leeds Central Library. Claremont Avenue, Leeds. “Garden” - flowerbed on flyover over Wallflower: the A58(M) and between A58 and Park Wall - small ginnel/pathway off Aire Lane, Leeds. Street (near Leeds Train station). Flower - Shrub outside Squire Sanders, Park Lane, Leeds.