Our idea!!

After some group discussion, and some inspiration gained from the world of the internet we starting fixing some ideas together in the standard input,output, projection structure. We now have some location specific data to base our project around, and as mentioned before we plan to use...

1. The buildings vast history it form a detailed and interesting projection.

2. We will use some sort of input device to control when and how the projection is displayed.

Input:

We thought that we might develop some sort of questionnaire that's available online that based upon the users answers will change the output via a method such as movement. However we would have to promote the site, but i consider this a good idea as it will promote our project as well.

On the other hand this is quite time consuming and not very creative. So deeper thinking is required for this part....

Output:

This is the test that Luke Mears in our group has done. It is a test to show the Mise en abyme effect which is a basic feed back system to give a void like effect which not only looks weird and abstract, but can represent many things giving this changing depth and repetition effect. We as a group liked this effect and we could use it create a void in the side of dance academy creating a subliminal message of mystery and discovery about its history and future.

This Mise en abyme effectively creates an endless loop. We thought we would use this technique to create a seemingly endless passageway of history through the building of the dance academy.

While this effect is cool, we aren't sure how we will keep the public's attention with just this effect, and maybe it isn't the best thing to look at while driving a car!

Location + space = idea?!

A. Potential projection location one

B. Potential projection location two

Numbers 1 to 5: Areas in which people can see our projection.

So due to none of us except John being very skilled with a pencil we have a nice drawing to explain what we are trying to achieve thanks to him. In this image the main areas of sight by any given member of public have been defined thus helping us to decided where to position our projection. We want the maximum amount of the people that pass through stonehouse to be able to see what we are trying to create, so based on this drawing it will be best to choose point B.

Location location location

So here is three pictures of our first location. It gives us the idea of what space we are dealing with so we can begin to form ideas inside the space. As a group we stood for 5 minutes and observed the street during rush hour, by counting the cars, and people from every direction as this number would give us a rough idea as to how many would see our projection.

1. 
   
   People at bus shelter/opposite restaurants = 12 people/1 bus
2. 
   
   People walking by on foot = 55
3. 
   
   People walking by side of building on foot = 8
4. 
   
   Cars entering and exiting car park = 38 cars
5. 
   
   Traffic passing on main road = 422 vehicles

So with these findings in mind, the doorway could be a good setting as it exposes our projection to maximum capacity whilst creating a subtle doorway to the building via our projection which i think is a cool idea. However it isnt quite in full view of our main audience, which going by the data is passing vehicles. So its in our best interest to make it most visible to them.

I like the idea that this space has never been used for such a project, and using our project to extend the current space and the historic meaning within that space is an idea which can create a meaning to those who would not normally see it.

Jon moore who is on my group took the time to draw a to scale drawing of the door so we knew exactly what space we were working with. Using this we can start to take into account technical details for our project.

Ideas in space 2

So we as a group feel we have experienced all that stonehouse specifically our chosen area Union Street has to offer us. We felt that it was the Dance Academy theatre that we were most interested in due to reason mentioned in the part one of this post.

We now needed to start thinking about what we would like to do with this space and how we want to change it. Maybe also think about what technologies we could/can involve with this area and is it feasible.

Whatever we decide our project will follow this basic format...

Input :  For our idea we obviously need some kind of input, noise pollution, motion sensing heat sensing something that will give us an output.

projector: In terms of what we actually plan to project, we want to reflect the history of the building on union street. so we want a certain change from modern to historic image based upon the inputs behaviour.

output: The area we choose will reflect the projection for the public to see.

We know that we want to somehow take the buildings history and perhaps make a stance of send a message to the public via our work, but how remains unclear.

Ideas in space

So, we have started exploring the space of stonehouse in different ways and looked at how we as a group can transform stonehouse. There's clearly a lot of negativity surrounding stonehouse in the present day we either want to change that a little bit with our idea or use that as a factor to send a message to the public.

A brief History of the dance academy:(wikipedia)

"In 1898 The Palace Theatre opened as a music hall in Union Street. It was damaged by fire only eight months after opening, but re-opened in 1899 as The New Palace Theatre of Varieties. In 1961 it was converted to a bingo hall and continued in this use and as a theatre until 1983 when it became "The Academy" disco.

In May 2006 a police operation showed that class A drugs were being used and dealt there,[8] and it closed as a result.[9] The building is grade II listed,[10] and in 2008 it was included on a list by The Victorian Society of the UK's ten most endangered and best Victorian and Edwardian buildings."

Stonehouse as a location seems to be a general passing route from Devonport to the city centre. Back when people would come in to the UK off the boats they would arrive in Plymouth and see all the glitz and glamour that was Union street. Theatres shows and entertainment made union street a hot nightspot throughout the country.

Over the years Union street drastically changed from this to a clubbing haven. The rise of super clubs and the emergence of the “Acid House” music scene in the late 80's paved the way for drug fuelled 8 hour raves in Plymouth. The acts had now changed from big theatre performances to huge energy filled raves, with top DJ's from all over the world playing in Plymouth.

While many still regard this as the Stonehouse areas finest hour, it was also the reason for its downfall.

So much History lies in this one street and it is still used as the road from Devonport To the city centre therefore we chose this as our location 1. because of its rich history but 2. due to the amount of people exposed to this location, therefore our project would be seen my a considerable number.

If I refer back to the map that we as a group made I can see that the most concentrated area for all our layers is Union Street.

My hand tattoo submission.

In my hand tattoo I wanted to portray what was important in my life, so to do this I had the idea of using the ritual of palm reading. My life, heart and fate lines are represented by the three red lines on my hand.

The lowest line is my fate line, in which I have put what I believe my fate is. However they are in a white font as they are all uncertain, but still facts, as I still believe that they will happen.

Secondly is my life line, this contains basic facts about my life age name etc. They are in bold red font to make it look similar to an ID card. Lastly there is my heart line, this is where I have included my interests. Size of font plays a role here, the bigger the font the more love I have for that particular subject. The fonts and colours selected here connote the meaning of each word, for example internet is in a font in which you would expect to see on a LCD or HUD.

Lastly the reason for the entire image of the hand being in a pop art style is not only to show my love for art but also technology. I have made it look like my hand is being scanned my some sort of device that is reading my DNA through my hand and revealing my autobiographical facts.