Setting Up the Show Pt. 2

Final Set Up

Today is the final day to finish all the work and set up for the show, so there is a lot to be done. Mine was in a slight state of disarray, but I covered the plinth in the white carpet, trimmed it and placed the work on it in a way I am happy with now. The next thing I had to do was to hang up the gun. I used a nylon fishing wire so it is barely visible and after decided the angle that it was to be hung, we used drawing pins at the top of the wall to fix it in to place. I decided that the gas mask would be better leading to the floor rather than having the boots on the floor on their own. This linked in the whole piece in the space rather than it being things on a plinth, then things on the floor and wall which i think will improve the whole look of the work.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, and helping other people put their work up or organize things. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get a chance to sort out lighting and my text panel before the end of the day, but that is getting sorted tomorrow before the show, so all should go well in the end.

All Extra Research Pieces

I am trying to include all the sources I used for research purpose, so I uploaded the files saved on my computer to Mediafire to access.

This is the link to the file containing all the pieces:
http://www.mediafire.com/?21c8d1zwguzzn

Setting-Up the Show Pt.1

Room: Photography studio

I was given the photography studio as a space to set up alongside other people. This is an odd shaped room because of the infinity curve and it having an upstairs, which gave us an interesting space to work in. The first thing that we thought we should do is explain a little about our work, so we could judge where things fitted in the space or if they fitted at all.

            What was decided over some deliberation and adjustments is that my space was opposite the door leading in to the studio next to the stairs. I like this spot, the stairs, to me, make it seem more like a homely atmosphere and it also acts as an alternative viewing angle which is probably more ideal for 3D work than photography or projected images. 

My work next to the stairs

            Once spaces were decided we needed to retouch all the surfaces and clean the floors etc. This was done by we used Polyfiller and white paint on the walls and obtained plinths which were also painted white.

The Plinth I'm using, painted white

Polyfiller in the holes

At this point I was considering still keeping my work on the floor but having a carpet underneath as I thought that my work would look more authentic as a whole on carpet rather than a grey lino. However, after looking at the placement with the stairs, I decided that it would be better placed on a large, low plinth. This will hopefully stop the work from looking a bit lost in the stairs and give it a little more presence against the wall behind it.

On a Red carpet (I thought it made the work look smaller)

White Carpet (I preferred this colour)

 I also decided, with input from others, that the rifle would look interesting if it was suspended, and we though fishing wire would work well for this. Unfortunately after making these decisions I had to leave without getting a chance to put it up, so that’s going to have to be done Monday. I would really have liked to get it done to a point on Friday though, and give more input in to helping other people put up there work and agreeing what would look best. 

Little Extra

I thought of presenting my work and the fact that a lot of my work is on this blog made me think of how i am going to show this. One thing thats becoming really popular in advertising is the QR code, which is scanned by phones etc. and directs you to a link. I thought that it would be good if I could use a link like this to direct people to this blog. Another way I thought of using this is as a type of take away gift that links to a wallpaper or some kind of download for people to have.

I made the QR code for this blog using http://www.qrstuff.com/

I I have and app on my iPhone which uses the camera to read the code and this takes me straight to this blog, so it works nicely. I plan to take some good photos of my work as presented and hopefully use that as a wallpaper.

Text Panel

I wanted to explain my piece in the text panel to help people understand my work. However, I realised that the point  of the panel was to introduce and point people in the right direction rather tell people exactly what my piece is and how it came to be.


So, after a bit of brainstorming, this is the text panel thats going to be displayed with my work:

This piece is a celebration of harmonious opposites, set in a time of conflict. I am inspired by stories told by the people from World War Two. These stories told of changing expectations and making do with the materials that were available. My interpretation of this is manifested in to altering the products from the war to see ways I could change the relationship of what they are perceived to be, and what they can be.

Presenting the Piece

Now that all my individual objects are finished, I have to work out how I’m going to present the piece as a whole. I had rough idea during the creation of them and obviously I can see constraints because of size when making them.

One thing I knew I wanted to do from the offset was to present the case open with some objects inside, my inspiration here was the idea of soldier returning home an dumping all of there stuff on the floor to greet heir families. I liked this idea because it felt really human and showed of a story and emotions that is involved in the war and could potentially make the piece more emotive.

            This story of the returning soldier meant that I though the boots would be better placed about side the case, and made to look thrown off casually. I also wanted to show the sole of the boots but not too obviously as there is interesting detail here. The gun would have to be placed outside the case as well because its too big to fit inside. I think that because I want it to be a type of vase it would be better stood up to keep the flowers inside.

            Other than these objects there is a bit of free reign of the placement of the objects in the case, but these need to be done in a way to show the objects clearly but not look over cluttered.

My current favorite way to present this work is the third way as everything is clear to see but not too cluttered and i really like the gas mask lit up at the front because it grabs your attention.

Speakers in the Boots

I decided that I wanted to use the boots as a kind of speaker to play wartime songs. This is because I think it would add much more of a wartime atmosphere when presented. I also want to include more of a product side to the project and I think that by having the boots as speakers they are more of a sellable product. This was also another opportunity to alter the purpose of the original object, which were basic boots, simply used to get the job done, but adding the speaker element makes it in to something almost opposite to this.

            Turning the boots in to the speaker was actually quite simple, but I did have to change my initial plan for it. I had intended to get a pair of small speakers and plant those in to the boots, and playing the songs from an iPod. However the speakers I bought for this were much larger than I thought they would be and didn’t fit in the boots, so I bought a smaller single speaker, but this meant only having one boot play music. Although I would have liked both boots to play the music this would have been much more expensive and had more wires, which I was trying to avoid anyway.

            The new speaker fitted in to the boot easily and I found a tiny iPod shuffle, which the music was loaded on to so everything fitted inside the boot without distorting the shape. One thing I though at this stage was that the appearance of the modern looking, black, plastic speakers didn’t really fit in, so I used a crochet sample to cover the top. I was worried that this may affect the sound but it didn’t so that was ideal.

            I think that doing this has helped the piece feel more authentic because of the music. It also satisfies me in the sense that I want to make products and this is a little closer to doing that and making a more interesting, interactive show.  I am aware that if I had planned to do this from the offset of making the boots, I would have been able to incorporate the speakers more thoroughly than what they are now, but I think this design works well. One thing with this is that during the show I will have to make sure there is enough battery in the iPod and the speakers, but the battery life should be enough to last to the end of each day.