Lauterwasser
Extended Research
Natural History Museum research lab
I successfully applied to take part in a collaborative project with the Natural History Museum. This project is ongoing and aims to create a series of art objects to communicate and inspire partially sighted young people. The objects are based on imagery produced in the museum’s laboratory.
The experience of seeing the electron microscope in use, and the explanation of what was happening technically was fascinating. It challenged and changed some of the ways I think about vision and how we can interpret what we see. There is a limit in the extent that optical apparatus can magnify, beyond this point we must use physical technology to interpret what is happening and translate that back into a visual medium. The electron microscope bounces electrons off the surface of an object, the direction that these electrons are reflected is mapped by the machine that then creates a highly detailed visual representation of the surface.
The level of magnification is breath taking, each time the magnification is increased a tiny crevice becomes a new world, rich with detail. Over and over a vast new environment is revealed. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to liken the experience of this to the description that astronauts give having looked back at the world from outer space; a completely new context and scale to the world we experience.
I am working to develop a series of three dimensional objects, using existing tools in my practice; laser cutting, woodworking and application of surface texture to break images down through series, scale and surface, and reform them in a way that encourages new connections between elements.
Beyond this project I am interested in reflecting the revelatory nature of this experience in my work. There are parallels that can be drawn not just with an off planet experience, but from an revelatory personal experience or understanding of subconscious that can cause a revaluation relating to self.
UCL Observatory, Mill Hill
I have made an application to spend some time with the UCL staff onsite at their observatory in Mill Hill, London. My ongoing research is concerned with the external and the internal and the dialectic relationship between the two. This can be used as a metaphor for the domestic and the public, and the conscious and the subconscious. I am interested in not only how imagery using telescopic instruments can inform this, but by understanding more about the cosmic events that effect our lives and behaviours. I am also interested in how understanding technically how these instruments work and how they can affect our perception of vision and the act of seeing.
Tidal mudpool, Leigh on Sea
I made a series of return trips to a single location this term. While there was no human interaction, there was valuable learning experience in regard to a sustained survey of a place and how the place can reveal itself over time by capturing it, studying it and reflecting on the experience of being there.
