latest news headlines
Cape Farewell at Somerset House
XL Video supplied projection and control for video artist and photographer David Buckland’s recent inventive installation work in Somerset House, which is part of his wider Cape Farewell Arctic exploration project. Cape Farewell draws together artists, scientists and educationalists in an exciting project, collectively addressing and raising awareness of global warming.
The projections – one of the art elements of the project - were beamed onto the Seaman’s Hall facade of the majestic main courtyard at Somerset House, at the end of the venue’s famous winter ice rink. (The ice was enjoyed this season by nearly 120,000 members of the skating public.)
The installation ran from dusk until 10 pm every night for 10 days. It was primarily an experimental R’n’D exercise, designed to illustrate how this specific type of building projection will potentially translate into a much larger integrated Cape Farewell Festival event, planned for Somerset House in 2006.
The technical elements were co-ordinated by Sam Collins, who has worked with XL Video on several other arts projects, including the Siobhan Davies Dance Company and ArtAngel. Malcolm Mellows, XL’s arts and theatre specialist, project managed from their end.
The two Barco G5 projectors were located in a specially built shed, just 13 metres away from the building, complete with super wide angle .8 lenses. This produced a 17 metre wide throw across the ornate pillars and stonework of the Seaman’s Hall.
The source material was stored on 2 Doremi hard drives, run in two loops – one seven minutes long and the other three minutes long, with the two images overlaid creating random combinations of the two sets of footage.
The longer loop contained a video essay, shot on Betacam, of glaciers, seas, snow, etc shot during Cape Farewell’s most recent Arctic expedition in September – this formed the ‘background’ of the projection. The shorter loop contained a series of texts, made from Hasselblad still photographs, of original video projections onto huge glacier walls in the Arctic. The messages included ‘The Cold Library of Ice’. ‘Sadness Melts’, ‘Ice-Force’, etc. Together they formed a moving, powerful abstract reflection on the effect of global warming on the planet.
The different depths and highly textured nature of the building surface was important in defining the final look of the video material. It was a completely different surface to the original glacier walls used for the text projection, and produced some unexpected results. Buckland explains that during the set up on site, they worked organically, using elements such as the perspective distortion created by the short throw angle and integrating it into the final look of the work.
XL’s Malcolm Mellows says:”
It is always most enjoyable working with Sam Collins, who brings an eclectic mix of exciting and important arts projects to XL Video. In particular, the issues raised by the research for this educational exhibit will affect us all. Working together, Cape Farewell, Sam and XL Video have devised a powerful visual means through which the viewer cannot help but take note.”
The project was conceived by David Buckland. The ‘art’ element of Cape Farewell so far contains the work of 13 renowned artists including novelist Ian McEwan, sculptor Anthony Gormley, painter Gary Hume, choreographer Siobhan Davies and sound artist Max Eastley.
Cape Farewell is a series of expeditions into the Arctic through a previously icebound route, now passable because so much has melted! The Cape Farewell team embark on their final fieldwork expedition in March 2005, joining their ice-locked schooner Nooderlicht just North of the 79th Parallel.
2nd February 2005
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
