Final prese-ntation
Final presentation of my project // thinking about Degree Show
choices I made++final outcome
How I am intending to present my project in a space. Explaining the choices I made and documentation of my final outcome.
Reflecting on the WIP:
I want to carry on with this idea of a home environment. I didn’t like my choice of paint for the WIP. I used one that was too pale. Even though on the swatches it looked more vivid, it turned out to be a very pastle peach colour. So this is something I’d like to change moving forward.
I liked how the plant looked. I made a good choice, and will use that same one. The mirror made sense in that space, but since I won´t be exhibiting in 2 different walls, I will lose the mirror this time - there is no need for creating continuity in the space.
For the grid presentation, I´d like to present quite a few of my pictures, but this time I want to create a nicer and more “stable” pattern. I will carry on with this idea of mixing Midjourney-generated images and my analogs for the final outcome, it portrayed well the idea behind them and I like how they link with the negatives well.
For the lightbox, I thought of making a bigger one where I would exhibit all the negatives. I liked the idea of being able to interact with the negatives by handling them and switching them, but I was actually afraid of them being lost or misplaced. And there was room for improvement on the way they were presented. So will need to rething that. I might order another roll, so I can exhibit some of the new midjourney-genarated images as well.
If I have time, I woukld like to also accompany the wall photos with some rave posters, to make it look a bit more “bedroom-y”. I’d like to make them look like 90s or 2000s.
I will also need to think about how to present my processing sketch, thinking about using a CRT monitor, but will have to source that. Still thinking about what is best for interaction, will need to decide wether to use a webcam, a leap motion controller or an ultrasonic sensor. So depending on my final choice will need to think about the housing for that as well as how to integrate it in my wall space.
And finally, for the WIP I made use of two different walls - as I mentioned earlier - and I am not sure I liked having things scattered around the room. I am thinking that I’d like to have everything together in the space, not only for cohesion but to really give the impression that it is like taking a chunk of a bedroom and placing it onto a space.
Paint:
First things first, I wanted to find a company that had more interesting options than Dulux. I was looking for companies that had an alternative approach to wall paint. I found one that was also vegan & cruelty free. It is called YesColours. I got captivated by this Matt Electric Blue:
Initially I really considered using it, but I don’t think it would have went well with the pictures after all. I was also needing a matt black paint, so i bought the “Electic Black” matt paint swatch and ordered a few other swatches to decide which testers I would get before really commiting to a colour.
This seemed like a stupid choice at first, but found out that it was actually quite an important one. The photos didn’t look the same in all the different colours I chose for the swatches. Some brough up the colours in the pictures better than others.
After testing how pictures looked into each of them and asking my peers their opinion, I decided to go for the ones that I highlighted above. And also ordered the “Electric Black” matt paint!
I used the same pictures to do the tests and chose 4 pictures that had different colours and saturations in them. Overall, it was unanimous that the coral (Joyful Orange) was the one that brought up the colors of the pictures more.
I was a bit undecesive because the Joyful Green (first picture above) was less “agressive”. Although the orange was definetely warm, it was quite striking and I started being afraid that a full wall with that colour could end up being too much. Decided to go for it. In any case, this is a decision I can make differently for degree show if I am not fully convinced in the end.
Paintng the wall:
As there is limited space in the studio to set-up, I decided that one of the corner-shaped fake-walls would be fun to play with. I think for degree show, though, I would like to use a wall without corners. But we had to work with the space we had! And I don’t think it will really affect my outcome in any drastic way.
So, I started removing mounting tape (which was all over the walls) removed a few nails and sanded down the leftover glue:
As I wanted to contain everything within a space, I thought that making a sqare inside the walls would give that whatever was inside the coloured space was conceived within a time and a space. I am aiming to provoke feelings of viewers looking into my safe space. The space where my memories lie, to evoke intimacy as I am letting them enter this personal safe space.
So I started by giving the wall a coat of white paint. Once that was dry, I used the spirit level to apply the masking tape perfectly straight. I made sure everything would fit in the space. I placed the lightbox and the shelf and measured how much I’d need if I wanted to have 3 columns of photos on the left wall. Once that was done, I applied the first coat of paint.
The wall was finished after giving it 3 coats of paint - didn’t take a final picture. But the results will be seen at the end.
In order to decide how much space to paint, I made a sketch with measurements to see how to fit everything on the space and how it would look like. I’m sharing it below:
Lightbox:
As I already explained the process in the “Lightbox” section, I won’t be making any more updates here. If you want to see the process head over there!
Below I’m uploading a few pictures of how it looks now that it is done!
CRT monitor:
I sourced my own CRT monitor on eBay. I was interested in one that looked like those that people had in their bedrooms (to follow with the “bedroom aesthetic”//creating an intimate environment//evoke nostalgia). My idea was to potentially get one that resembled those that were “especial editions” as I thought those would evoke more nostalgia.
Turns out I found one (from Ben 10) and it was around 300£, and that made me reflect on how silly that would look on my shelf. So, decided to turn it down a little. My first option was this one, but with the postage I was looking at around 200£++...
At this point I realised that most of the monitors I was interested in (aesthetically-wise) were either white or grey, and I decided to look for a darker colour. I thought about my choices of colour at this point and most of the elements I had in my wall were colour-coded. So, shelfs were black, lightbox was also black (things that contain other things//were holding things were black. So my CRT monitor was going top be black! (Of course didn’t find a matt black one, so had to get a dark grey one. But looks way darker than any of the ones I saw on eBay!
Tested it, and everything works without problems! I am using a SCART converter to RCA and a RCA to HDMI converter. This is to upscale the image when connected to a laptop.
Arduino and ultrasonic sensor housing:
I wanted to make my own box, so I took the measurements of the different elements and made the 3D model of the box using Fusion (from Autodesk). I was hoping to get a box that would hold everything with a snug fit, and no extra space (I did allow +0.5mm for all the measurements, though. In case the re were any small errors from the 3D printer).
I made the model using Autodesk’s Fusion 360. I kept in mind the fact that I wanted the box to be underneath the shelf, so added a few screw holes to it.
Below are my models:
The one on the left is the first one I made. The box was meant to contain everything tightly, but I misscalculated something and the arduino didn’t quite fit. I managed to fit a smaller arduino in there (nano), but that meant I had to switch from an ultrasonic sensor with 5V current to one 3.5, and it made the visuals to be jumpy. So had to redo the whole box, I ended up making it bigger and I think I ended up making a bit too deep now... I may decide to make it less deep for degree show, so it doesn’t stand out that much from the shelf...
Here I am sharing part of the printing process and part of the supports removal from the printed box!
For now, this is only a minor detail, something that can be improved if wanted to, but the box is completely functional, and looks nice underneath the shelf!
Setting the pictures on the wall:
For attaching the pictures to the wall, my tutor recommended to use some mounting board. I did consider this idea because I thought that in the WIP the pictures looked a bit “unoficial”. After doing some research on foam boards - which I thought would maybe lose the “bedroom vibe” I was looking for - I decided in a self-adhesive board that was made with some sort of card material instead of foam.
I made a preselection of photos mixing my analogs and the midjourney-generated ones, and reprinted them in glossy paper in the 6x4 format again. Once printed I analysed the pictures again, and decided which ones to leave out (sadly, there were a few of the new generated ones that didn’t look as good once printed out). These are the resulting mounted photos:
Before starting, I brought my plant into the studio and tried to find the perfect spot for it. Once that was done, I painted the shelf black.
Following my sketch, I placed the shelf with the plant and the shelf with the CRT monitor and started dividing the wall with masking tape to create a grid where the pictures would go. Using blu tack I aided myself placing a few of the harder-to-place portrait pictures.
Once the masking tape was placed well enough creating a grid, I started placing the pictures...
Final pictures and videos: