I
haven't officially installed my 'Under Surveillance' installation yet as I will
only have access to the room for installation in the evening of the 14th
December 2016 and then it will only be installed in the Universities Front
Gallery space from January 8th 2017 and will be displayed through till
February. However, I thought it would be helpful for me to evaluate the process
of where I started and how I got to my finalised idea.
I
feel like at the very beginning of this project when we were given this brief
that I had not much of an interest in Installation and therefore originally was
hoping to keep my final piece simple to me by making a film or photographic
image as my final outcome. However, throughout all the workshops, lessons and a
lot of independent research the idea of installation got more and more
interesting to me. Especially the idea of installation being interactive for a
viewer as this is new technologies being used in art to get a message across. I
also began to love the idea of mixed media as well. Soon I began to try and
push myself by thinking of installation ideas which would get a strong message
that meant something to me across and to push my artistic skills. I began to
look at Surveillance and the idea of people watching others as this always
interested me and I have found its becoming a popular theme on things like TV Programs.
However, I wanted an idea which put this idea of being watched into realistic
terms and this led me to wanting to show people how CCTV and Surveillance is
used so heavily in Society to monitor them. This led to me developing off of my
thoughts on this as my idea.
I
felt my initial idea linking to Surveillance and the use of Mirrors,
Projections and Soundscapes was very complicated looking back at it. At the
time however in my mind I thought it would prove more of a point if I had a lot
more elements involved. I soon realized after more discussion amongst my
creative colleges, some more research and even a trip to London Galleries to
see Installations that simpler installation were actually more effective and
generally tended to look more effective with in the space as well. This led me
to strip down my Surveillance Idea and completely assess how I could get my
point across in a much more simplistic style that an audience would interpret a
lot more effectively. I had to begin by thinking into exactly what I wanted to
express to my viewers. My piece was all about the Idea that Surveillance had
lost its effective meaning to my generation and younger generations who have
been brought up in a society where we see CCTV cameras and Surveillance
everywhere. We have grown up with them therefore we never take a chance to
think about what they really are there for. Essentially what I don't like about
it is that they are used to watch us. I understand it was originally for safety
purposes but I feel like the way we are now monitored on every aspect of our
life such as social media means that it has crossed a line from being
protective to now being invasive. My piece was meant to make people realize
that CCTV is other people monitoring us by putting a human face to it which is
in my piece the viewers own face behind the CCTV having them observing
themselves on a live feed. This is looped, as is the sound to make it much more
intense and to reinforce this idea of your image being spread without your
permission. I feel like once I had sorted out what I specifically wanted to
achieve with my piece it was a lot easier to narrow down how I would go about
it. I cut down all unnecessary elements and only incorporated useful equipment
and styled it in a way that looks clean cut and almost clinical to make common
connections in people’s head to government. I am much happier now I have done
this because it has left me a lot more confident in my idea and how it will
look in the gallery. I also feel it has a stronger meaning to it now that I
have taken the time to research into it more and think about it more.
I
feel like when it comes to physically installing it I won't have many problems
as I have already tried and tested the equipment I have hired it out to make
sure the theory of the live feed works which it did. I also had a meeting with
a technician who showed me everything available to me so I know I have now
booked out everything I could need that will make it most effective. I have
also through doing a Risk Assessment for my installation found the safest ways
to put it up in the proposed Gallery space meaning that things like trailing
wires won't be an issue. I am hoping that it will run smoothly and as long as
all the equipment works it will be as effective as I feel I can make it.
I
think if I were to do this project again I would take more time at the
beginning to really think into what I want as my message to be so I could have
begun effectively developing it back then. However, I am happy that I took the
journey I did to get to this final piece because I am very confident in it now
and I would have never expected at the beginning to have wanted to make an
installation piece so it’s been fun to try something new.
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