Making the frame.
A JOURNEY INTO THE VIRTUAL WORLD #10
I had the group crit and I refined my presentation in the last post, here is a link if you missed it.
With revisions made in my mind, and with the exhibitions closing in, it was time to get on with creating the final form in which I would present my work to the public. I had settled on framing and having drawn up some simple plans for how to build the thing, I made for our local B&Q to purchase the required resources. The construction I had in mind was very simple in both design and aesthetics, so only a small number of items were required. The list of items included a large sheet of MDF, several lengths of pine, a hole saw, and a fresh paint roller. The PVA, white emulsion, and the rest of the little bits and pieces required were already available in my dad’s shed.
My decision to go with a circular aperture through which the work would be viewed was in part for convenience due to the limited tools I had at my disposal to create another shape with any kind of refinement, and in part for the aesthetic link to that of the porthole, as some of the images were loosely associated with the navy, and all had military links. There were also voyeuristic links as well as to looking down the barrel of a gun. But as I say, these were tenuous, and it was almost entirely for the simplicity and the pure aesthetics - tutors like to see some bullshit around these decisions however, so I had to pull something out of my arse.
Once I had finished the bulk of the construction, I ordered sets of LED strip lighting to run along the inside of the frame to create an even lighting across the back of the negatives, and in order to link these I used USB hubs connected together with a power cable running out through the bottom of the frame. Once this was completed, I had the final task of curating the selection. I designed the frame with room enough for only six images, and for my group presentation, I had 20. This was quite a difficult cull, and I eventually decided on a range of images that I felt complimented each other best, and which most suitably conveyed the message I was trying to get across through the project.
The overall inspiration for this method of display came from the idea of the archive, which has been prevalent throughout the development of the work. As having a totally interactive setup for the exhibition was impractical (at least on the scale we were showing at), I decided to use the frame, and to create it with aspects of archival methodology in mind. Microfilm Readers are devices used for the reading of documents stored as microfilm, which preserves documents, newspapers, and the like by storing them on a roll of plastic film using a method known as micro-photography. This reduces the full-size document dramatically, allowing for the archiving of a vast amount of data. Using the backlit frame I had created, I was hoping to subtly reference these devices in both the overall design and the manner of display.
With the preparations made, the last things left to do were to create the ephemera that would surround the piece during the exhibition, these being flyers that detailed the work and some business cards for people to take, as well as the information card that would go alongside the work on the wall. Once these were done, it was onto the final preparations for the exhibitions, designing the logos and banners for both our group show and the end of semester exhibition at the university itself. More on that next time however…
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