Sub mer sion
29 January2 February 2015
Sub mer sion Sub mer sion Sub
Introduction Edinburgh’s Light Festival, Submersion, was proposed to bring new life to the closes and courts off the Royal Mile. This booklet shows the research, design and implementation of an installation designed for Carrubber’s close for the duration of the festival.
A journey to the past As you walk through the tunnel entrance to Carrubber’s close you will experience something you have never experienced before. Everything is new. The atmosphere has changed. You are no longer in the City of Edinburgh but travelling through space and time. The sound is strange to you but you can hear familiar noises as well as new ones. As you walk further into the tunnel you hear a girl singing and see light shining onto the wall in the close infront of you. You stop at the top of the close, no longer covered by the roof of the tunnel and notice that you are being projected onto the wall. Moving down the hill you hear noises of people singing inside one of the buildings, footsteps, horses hoofs and a fire crackling and notice that your shadow moves with you, almost ghost-like. You are now in Edinburgh’s past, around the 1600’s. You have become a part of history. Final Submission: https://vimeo.com/90454610 Photos: Images of the final outcome.
Inspirations body movies - Realational architecture no. 6 Interactive Installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. This installation was designed to transform the Schouwburg Square in Rotterdam from August the 31st to September the 23rd in 2001. It was commisioned and produced by V2 for the Cultural Capital of Europe 2001. It was inspired by the work of dutch painter, Samuel van Hoogstraten. Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyOj26hmH0
Images from the movie link above
inspirations venetian mirror - Fabrica Venetian Mirror is one of two interactive installations by Fabrica that were exhibited at Decode in the V&A in 2009. Itis a large scale installation blending digital technology with traditional Venetian glass. The cut of the glass pieces surrounding the mirror resemble a broken mirror creating an allusion to the fragility of time. When the visitor walks up to the installation, their image doesn’t immediately appear in the mirror. Only if they keep very still, will the reflection slowly appear, like a photograph being developed. Watch an example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1hn_lgu1e8
Images from the link above and vam.ac.uk
close research carrubber’s close The origin of the name, Carrubbe’s Close is not definitive, but it is most often linked with William de Carriberis (aka Carroberos, Carabris), a magistrate and merchant who resided nearby in the early 1450’s. Other famous residents, such as Allan Ramsay, the poet (1684 - 1758) and James Young Simpson who discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform while running a dispensary in the close, lived here. Carrubber’s Close is the fifth close in the proposed route and is larger than the other closes. This poses a problem with light and when testing my installation I came across too many issues meaning I would have to film my design in a different location. These issues could be resolved with blackout covers on street lights.
Images from royal-mile.com, edinfilm.com and taken myself
the portal development The original idea for the portal part of my installation was to use Processing to create a psychedelic and colourful installation controlled by the user when they walked through the close but after a lot of trialing and changing code, I decided that what I wanted to achieve would not work in time to be tested and filmed. After realising this I began to search for videos available for free download and use and came across the video in the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2fIWB8o-bs The outcome using this video was better than I had expected but if I had more time I would have filmed a kaleidoscope myself to use.
Screenshots and Photos taken myself
into the past development The main part of the close is interactive where you can become a part of history. This installation comes from inspirations shown at the start of this booklet and was creating using Processing and an infared webcam. The main idea is to get people to stop and spend some time playing around with their ‘shadows’ instead of just walking by at their regular pace. The slower you move, the more the cameras pick up. If i had more time, I would have liked to include pre-made shadows dressed in clothes that would have been worn in the 1600’s and spent more time working on the programming to make the figures stick longer and look more like shadows than ghost like figures.
Sub Sub A Journey mer To Themer sion Past sion january 30th to february 2nd from 6pm carubbers close
Sub mer sion Sub mer sion
Travel through time and space into Edinburgh’s past and become a part of history.
printed materials This promotionaal poster includes images of the installation. The dates of the festival and the time that the installation will be running from is also included aswell as the close that it will be installed in.
Blog I created a blog on Tumblr to accompany my sketchbook and update my collaboration with the music students aswell as post progress with my installation. You can view this blog by clicking the link below: http://submersioninedinburgh.tumblr.com/
References Body Movies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENyOj26hmH0 Venetian Mirror - http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode/exhibition/interactivity/artist/8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1hn_lgu1e8
Designed by Natalie smith