Installing audio-visual installation at The Word - day 1

On Tuesday between 2:30pm and 4pm Sarah and I had access to the StoryWorld space at The Word in which my forthcoming exhibition will be held. Demand for the room is high, with lots of events and activities happening in there and so it is difficult to get access. Hence why every minute was precious during our 1.5 hour time slot.

I had prepared all the video files so that each one was 'mapped' to the specific wall that it would be projected onto. The walls have some curvature, and so I had to apply a different template to each of the videos that corresponded with the curvature of each wall so that the projection would not spill onto the floor or ceiling. The audio has been synched to correspond with the videos, and the videos have been edited so that not all the walls have projections on at the same time, but footage appears intermittently on all of the walls, adding a surprise element and creating an immersive environment.

Playing the footage for the first time alerted us to the very high bass levels of the speakers. Unfortunately the speakers are concealed within a wall and so we were told that it was not possible to access them to  turn down the bass. This resulted in some of the higher, and more subtle sounds becoming lost. The audio would need to be edited again to allow for the high bass speakers. Later that night Sarah and I created some alternative versions of the footage to be tested when next in the space.

I was disappointed with how the projections did not appear very strong and the colours were not as vibrant as I had intended. I realised that the window blinds had large gaps around the rim of the windows and so light was still entering the room. Simply taping over these gaps should help reduce the light entering the space.



I was also conscious that the videos were not properly aligned with the walls, and they were not all at the same level. In order to rectify this, we needed to manually change the position of the projectors. With lots of fine tweaking, we managed to get all of the videos to align.

BITTER/SWEET Install - Day 3

On arrival at the gallery, I was delighted to see that the second coat of paint that I had applied last night to 3 of the colours had really made a difference in terms of the depth of the colours. 

Emily started to paint the areas on the left side of the wall with teal while Liam and I masked out the rest of the design on the right side of the wall.

The taping of the design is very time consuming, and one needs to plan and be systematic in the order of painting so as not to paint two colours that are directly next to each other.

With two coats of paint on the vast majority of the wall on which the lettering was to go over, we made a start on mapping out the text, first using the thicker tape, and then completing each letter with the thinner tape. 

As I left for my return train back to Newcastle in the evening, I was really pleased with the work, but disappointed that I had run out of time to complete everything. There are a few elements that still need to be done. I feel very fortunate that the curators, Liam and Emily are going to follow my instructions to finish the work. As they have been assisting with the execution of the wall painting over the three day install, I am confident that they know what they are doing and will do a remarkable job at the final touches.

I will post more images once the exhibition has opened but I do not want to reveal too much now, and spoil the surprise for those who are able to visit the exhibition. 

BITTER/SWEET Install - Day 2

On my second day of install for BITTER/SWEET, the forthcoming group exhibition at Assembly House, Leeds I was fortunate enough to have assistance from both the curators, Liam McCabe and Emily Garvey.

As Liam and I aligned the projector so that the left half of the design fitted with the right half of the design, Emily cracked on with applying the next colour of paint; powder grey.

Once the projection was aligned, Liam and I marked out the right side of the design on the wall using masking tape.

Frustratingly, we could not completely match the design to the wall, and so I made a few adjustments to the design .

Once the vast majority of the straight edged shapes had been masked and were being painted, I turned my focus to the curved shapes in the design. I found the curved parts around the oval shape particularly challenging because of the large scale and the fact that this area of the design is near the top of the wall, and so involved me working at height and at a difficult angle.

By the time I had completed the curves, some of the other areas of paint had dried and so in the evening I painted a second coat on these areas.

Check out the straight lines!

It's those finishing touches that make the difference.

That's why I spent a good few hours meticulously painting the rim around my room! The joins between the grey floor and the white walls used to be messy and uneven causing ones eyes to focus on this unsightly detail. 

Hopefully this is no longer the case!

Install of the projections commences

I have a rather complicated installation setup, with lots of cables and items of technology to take into account. 

In the room with the projections the ceiling is weak and so nothing can be hung from the ceiling. Therefore, I am needing to install a tension wire spanning the width of the room, and will then hang the projection screen from this wire.



The projectors need to be positioned diagonally and as far away from each other as possible in order to get the throw length required to make the footage on the projector life size, as intended. They will need to be upside down and secured on bespoke brackets that need to be made from metal. 

The 2 projections need to be synched, and this requires use of some specialist equipment called BrightSigns. I set up these today and tested whether they work as desired. They do!

TRIGGER Install at the Observatory, Kielder Water and Forest Park

After much preparation, today was the big day; installing TRIGGER at our chosen site by the Observatory at Kielder Water and Forest Park.

On arrival we surveyed the ground where we had planned to site the work. The area around had become rather overgrown with grass and cotton plants, but we were surprised to find that the exact spot that we had marked out  previously for TRIGGER was pretty much the same. Even the 4 twigs we had put in place to mark where the structure was to go were still in place!

We began by measuring out the area where the posts were to be instead, and dug the holes for the poles to be inserted into. The ground was very soft, and we were able to scoop out the material (it can hardly be described as earth!) with our hands. The smell was overpoweringly disgusting, and I dread to think what it was that was producing such a pungent smell!

We then measured the each pole and marked the place of the pole that should be at ground level. We also measured the depth of each hole and calculated how much of the bottom of the tree pole we needed to saw off in order for the post to be the right size.

Having already determined which pole needed to go into each hole, our next task was to insert each pole into each hole. Thankfully we had a very willing and able troop of helpers at hand!

Once the posts were meeting at the top, we inserted the bolts into the holes we had drilled in the posts on our last visit to Kielder.

Amazingly, the bolts fitted into the holes with very little difficulty, and the structure was rather secure. With a little bit of wiggling and readjusting, we were able to get the structure upright and level.

We then unwrapped the box which already contained the speaker and USB. The solar panel had been attached.

We hoisted the box up inside the legs, and tightened the jubilee clips to hold the box onto the posts in the correct place.

Before we tighten the jubilee clips securely, we ensured that all levels were even and that the box was in the correct place and at the right angle. We also tested that the audio was working properly to ensure that we wouldn't need to take the box off the posts. All was good to go!

We poured water into each of the holes in the ground and poured postcrete into the holes and waited for about 20 minutes for it to solidify. 

We tightened the jubilee clips and bolts and then applied the finishing touches such as the bands of coloured tape at the top and bottom of the posts. We also added a couple of additional stripes to the box to make it more eye catching.

We spent some time adjusting the volume of the audio. After a good wipe over and few last touches of black paint we were able to stand back and enjoy the results!

We would like to thank everyone who helped with the install, and everyone who assisted us on the way. It has been a pleasure working with you and we hope that you enjoy the resulting artwork.

More details of the launch and exhibition duration will be issued shortly.

TRIGGER preparatory install

Today was a big day in terms of our artwork Trigger. We drove up to Kielder Forest and Water Park where we had access to the Art and Architecture studio for the day and were going to prepare the structure ready for installation. 

The Forestry Commission had kindly delivered the timber from Kielder that we requested to use for the posts for our structure.



Our first task was to attach the jubilee clips to the box in which the equipment will be housed. The jubilee clips will hold the posts in place and attached to the outside of the box.

With only 3 pairs of hands, 4 posts at over 4metres long, and a set of ladders that were slightly too small for our needs, erecting the structure fully was rather challenging and took many attempts.



On the patch of land outside the studio, we measured out the distance between the poles at the base of the structure and dug 4 holes in the ground in which our poles would fit in. We hoisted the 2 diagonal poles and marked the angle and position where the coach bolt should go in order to attach the two poles together.

Back on the ground, I then used a hand borer to bore the holes through the logs.

We then hoisted the diagonal poles together and Eddie positioned the coach bolt inside the posts. 

Following the same procedure for the other diagonals was impossible, and we came across various problems such as the coach bolt being too short because we had to go further down the pole in order not to meet the other coach bolt. We did mange to get 4 poles up and into position with the holes for the coach bolts in place. On the actual day of install we will need double the number of people (6 in total) to enable us to safely get the poles in place, bolted together and attach the box to the poles. Lets not forget that we also need to get the solar panel connected to the box and the speaker, and then to decide upon the suitable volume for the audio!

Any volunteers greatly appreciated! Please contact me (email address below) if you are up for a challenge!

helen.shaddock@yahoo.co.uk

Fluorescent tape has arrived!

After carefully planning the design of our artwork for the Kielder exhibition in the XL Gallery, we calculated how much tape we were likely to need, and did a mammoth order of different thicknesses of tape.

The order has arrived and now we can start the process of installing in the gallery.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Something with height

I am conscious that a lot of my work is quite small, and I feel as though there needs to be some larger items in the space. I would like to have work at different heights, and have been experimenting with hanging material from a couple of batons of wood that are resting on the existing ledges in the space.

Another idea is to hang a roll of lining paper from the batons, and display the seaweed on the paper. I think that a lot will depend on what else is in the space.

Different methods of display

I've been experimenting with different ways that I could install the same piece of work.

On the wall

 On the floor

 Emerging from a mound of shredded paper

Trimming the reflective vinyl

With one day to go before the install of Out of Kansas at The Lit and Phil, Jodie and I had a busy day finishing the work in readiness to be transported to The Lit and Phil in the afternoon.

Trimming the excess vinyl off one of the moveable sculptures

Zing install process

I realise that during the Snippet installation week, I was so busy that I never shared images of the experimental process of creating Zing.

These images show the decisions I made and how Zing came into being.