De Montfort Degree Show 2011

Exhibition june 2011 from Alex Smith on Vimeo.

Key Points of this project

I started off making a couple of time lapses.

Then I decided to experiment with direct light sources to make light trials

I decided that the long exposures with direct light sources weren't working out to my best advantage so I decided to just continue on with my time lapses.

This was a video I did from the top of the fletcher tower, I really like the lights and the hustle and bustle.

I tried something a bit different with this time lapse, but I don't think that it works. The theme of the project is light and although the sunlight dims and brightens as the clouds pass overhead I don't think it really works.

I decided the best way to display my work would be through an installation. So I started planning how it would work.

I started making more time lapses.

Made my new window after deciding the first one wasn't good enough.

Made dvd case

DVD Case

The above screen print shows my first draft of the dvd case. 

I decided to reverse the colours as it was a bit boring and this gave it a more dramatic look.

Seeing as I was going for more of a monochrome look and the photograph stood out a bit too much I decided to make the picture black and white.

The image still stood out too much so I erased the edges slightly to soften it and blend it into the background, more like it was peaking through,

I decided that the font was too girly and fancy so I changed it to a simpler plain one.

This is the final cover. I added a smaller version of the image to the spine to give a more professional look and changed the white text to slightly grey, just so it doesn't look too stark.

Final time lapses for dvd

These are the time lapses that I have decided to include on my final dvd. The final sequence showing the order the time lapses would play in the installation is also included on the dvd.





Newark Point from Alex Smith on Vimeo.


Time Lapse 2 from Alex Smith on Vimeo.

Final Run Through

This video shows one of my time lapses shown through my window and will be included in my final dvd as a layout guide.

Final Set Up

Once my window was built I could prop it up and set up for my final video.

Even simply placing it up against the TV I can tell it looks a lot better than the first one!

I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out. This photo shows the set up for the final video, I think that the cross on the window makes it look more three-dimensional.

Building my window day 2

I used sand paper to smooth over the rough bits of wood and to remove the excess filler. This took a while but I think that the result made it worth it.

I then painted the frame, I decided on white as the walls behind the TV are creamy coloured as are the curtains so I thought that white would stand out nicely.

Once the paint was dry I carefully (so as not to crack it) cut the acrylic to size. I then drilled holes in the acrylic for the screws that would hold it in place.

I pulled off the protective plastic from one side of the acrylic and screwed it to the frame.

Then using double sided sticky tape I measured (for the centre line) and attached the beading that created the 4 panels of glass in the window.

Then I needed to make the legs that the window would stand on. So I measured from the floor to the bottom of the window (while my boyfriend held it up in place) then marked out the length and cut both bits down to size. I used the same type of wood as the frame. 

I removed the last piece of plastic from the acrylic and attached the legs in the room where the TV is. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Building my window day 1

The first step was to measure the TV screen (50x88.5cm) then once I had bought all the materials (pine for the frame, beading for the inside of the frame, more beading for the cross in the middle, tacking pins, screws and paint) I could get started.

I measured the lengths of wood and sawed them off at a 45° angle. Doing this little extra work rather than just sawing them off square I decided was worth it as the corners would be much neater.

Once all the pieces were the correct size I (with a little help from my boyfriend, and more importantly his drill!) I screwed the frame together.

I then did the same with the beading I was using within the frame although I did not take into account that the beading was round on one side and the 45° angle did not make them sit together the way it did with the square timber.

I attached the beading with tacking nails then used filler to cover any gaps (like the ones in the corners of the beading) and left it over night to dry.

Decision to custom build a window

I decided after my miserable first run through that the only way to get a realistic effect was to make a window exactly the correct size for the TV I am using. I decided that using glass within my frame would be dangerous so I will use acrylic along with 38x63mm pine to build my window.

First Run Through

The top video shows the set up that I made with the window I found and although the lighting is appropriate at the beginning once the sun goes down on the time lapse the room is clearly still sunny. This breaks the illusion of reality.
The video bellow tries to overcome that problem as I used the lights within the room to light the curtains. I think this works better but I'm not happy with the window.

Installation set up 1

This video shows the first run through of my installation. I found an old window and painted the frame white. I added some legs to make it stand up against the TV which was already mounted on the wall. I bought some curtains and a curtain pole and attached them to the frame of the window. I then realized that the window was quite a bit longer that the actual TV screen and you could see the bottom of the TV frame as well as the wall behind it. I decided to try and block this by placing plants behind the window to create the look of a garden with some plants under the window. 
This looked awful. It did not give the impression of reality and just looked like a window in front of a TV. The glass made the contrast of the TV seem too weak as well.

Top floor time lapse

I left this tie lapse running over night and I really like the way it has turned out.

Garage time lapse

This is my last time lapse and also one of my favourites. I like the changing colours as the night goes on.

Thinking about the length of my time lapses

I have started to think more about how long I want my time lapses to be. I have decided that the time lapses that I want to show behind my window should be slow enough for people to look at it and think 'oh, did that just move?!' but then again I don't want it to go so slowly that they then walk away. I need a quick turnaround between each time lapse so it will take some experimenting to get it to the right speed.



Newark Point short version from Alex Smith on Vimeo.


The video above shows a shorter version of the time lapse I made of one of the halls of residence. The video bellow shows a shorter version of the second time lapse that I made.



Short time version of lapse no 2 from Alex Smith on Vimeo.

I think that the time that the video's take is very important. I think that these shorter versions are more interesting than the longer ones when viewing online but the video's that I show in my final piece need to be longer as I want the feel of real time looking out a window.

Time Lapse - Newark Point

This time lapse shows Newark Point Halls of Residence and I think that it gives a different scale to the other work I've done previously. In my previous time lapses the buildings have been further away like the panoramic works of Josef Sudek, this time lapse is much closer in, more like Eugene Atget and even bares resemblance to Andreas Gursky's work.


Newark Point from Alex Smith on Vimeo.

Stamford morning time lapse

I filmed this from the early hours of the morning to midday and I really like this video.

Drop the stills

I have decided that although I enjoy making the light trails they are bit cliche, they have been done before and its not stretching me. I will continue with the time lapses but will stop the stills.

Research - Walker Evans

I found this image while researching for another project and I noticed that Evans crops his images of buildings similarly to Eugene Atget. As opposed to other photographer such as Josef Sudek and Andreas Gursky who show buildings on a larger scale.

Research - Eugene Atget

Atget's city based images are much more cropped that those of Gursky and Struth, both of whom I have researched previously. I really like these photographs that were taken by a man that until his death was pretty much an unknown photographer. 

Research - Josef Sudek

Sudek was perhaps better known in his early career for his still life photography. However, from the 1950’s, 30 years after he became a photographer, he started to take panoramic photographs of Prague. His book Praha Panoramaticka published in 1959 changed his reputation and it is these photographs that I am interested in.

I really like these images, I've not come across many panoramic photographs before but I think that these are amazing. 

Installation Idea photoshop image

I decided that I would like to exhibit my time lapses as an installation. I think that the addition of a window would give the impression the viewer is looking through the window. The set up would basically consist of a TV screen behind a window with curtains and props to make it seem homely.

Installation Idea

I have decided that the best way to show my project would be through installation, I think that showing printed stills is definitely out of the question and I think that simply showing my films on a screen would be disappointing and would not show off my work well enough. I need something different, something memorable, that people thinking back to the exhibition will remember, I want it to stand out in their minds.


So I have decided that the best thing to do for my work would be to make an installation. As my video's have turned from looking at the changing sky into looking at windows and the passing of time within those windows while still including an element of light, I decided it would be appropriate to use a window as the focus point of my installation. I would like to recreate the time lapses and create the illusion of looking through a window to the outside world but in fact that outside world is one of my time lapses.

Intervalometer

I bought a shutter release which has an inbuilt timer so that I would be able to make time lapses without having to sit pressing the shutter every x seconds. This video is one of the first ones I made, its not really relevant but I just wanted to test that it worked.



Room from Alex Smith on Vimeo.

Research - Eadweard Muybridge

When I started thinking more about time lapses I decided to look into the work of Eadweard Muybridge as he is famous for the photographs of a running horse. The idea of using stills to show the movement through time and space appeals to me. Muybridge was an English man who spent most of his time in America. His Animal Locomotion images were groundbreaking and I could harly do a project based on time lapse (effectively the same process he was famed for) without mentioning him.

Research - Joel Meyerowitz

I found this photograph which is from the series Empire State and was taken in New York City in 1978. I really like this image, I like the strong colours (the one in the book is much more vibrant than this online image) the colour of the sky washes out as it gets closer to the horizon and this reminds me of my hotel time lapse.

Changes to the way I make time lapses

I was originally using final cut to edit together my time lapses but I found that it was significantly reducing the quality when I exported it. A friend suggested I tried using Quick time instead and I've found that although the result is slightly more jerky its a much higher quality.


I have had problems uploading the higher quality video's so I'm sticking to final cut compressed videos for the blog but I will be using higher quality Quick time movies on my dvd of final videos.

Research - Thomas Struth

His early works showed black and white photographs of the streets of Japan, Europe & America. I find the images stricking and you can tell that he and Andreas Gursky were both trained by the same people (Bernd & Hilla Becher). I like the compositions and I think that it has similarities to my own work.

Research - Andreas Gursky

My peer’s and tutors have often told me that my time lapse works reminds them of gursky’s photographs. I like the shear scale of Gurskys work. I like the repetition and patterns found in his work. The buildings and places he photographs are usually found in large city’s like the Tokyo stock exchange, the Siemens plant at Karlsruhe, the General Assembly building in Brasília, or the Sha Tin racetrack near Hong Kong. The farthest afield I have traveled for my work is Southampton. I can however see the similarities in our work. I can see it in the windows of the hotel I made a time lapse of.

Research - Linda Connor

Linda Connor’s work is often spiritual and light seems to be a big part of her influence. She frequently visits India, Mexico, Thailand, Ireland, Peru, Nepal, Egypt, Hawaii and the American Southwest, to photograph special places.

I really like this photograph. I like how it seems like the earth is moving beneath the stars (which of course it is, but often it feels like the stars go around us).

I like the way the light pours in to this picture.

I think that this is an interesting image and its such a grand building. She has a way of making places look very spiritual.