Wednesday 7th May.
Today, was the first time that I have been able to test my sculpture in a clinical white space. I am still not 100% sure as to wether or not it is the correct context to display the work in, but it does prevent any distractions, and allows the piece to exist in its own space.
As this allowed me to get an understanding of how I may display the piece, it was also a perfect oppurtunity to experiment with the possibility of displaying it through the form of film. During this process, I discovered that using dramatic lighting was more powerful than that of standard ceiling lights, and so have considered this for the degree show.
The water has really given the sculpture a life of its own, and with every pump, it breaths new life into the cycle.
As a test, I decided to time how long it takes between pumping and for the water to settle, and fopund that without alterations, it generally lasted for 5-10 minutes. Because of this, I haveconsidered the idea of making the piece into a ‘performance’ piece. one issue with it being a mere 5-10 minutes though is the fact that I would haveto constantly return to the piece and operate it.
I considered only operating the pump once an hour could be a solution to this, but eventually scrapped that idea, and settled on trying to prolong the process.
After some initial alterations, I manage to acheive a time of 20-25 minutes, which was certainly an improvement, but after collecting some other materials, I decided to continue to restrict the flow.
To begin with, I did not want to reduce it down to just drops of water, but wanted a steady flow, but as I tested different methods, I found that the drops removed the soothing quality to the sound, and made it appear more aggresive – something with seemed to add to the piece.
I’m still not sure as to why I believe that this has added to the piece, but it certainly changed the way it made me think about it.
Looking back to then.
Before installing the piece in a white space, I was toying with the idea of displaying it dismantled and categorised, in order to possibly make the audience consider the materials which were used within. However after experiening it functioning, i felt put off of the idea, as it made me consider how much we take our water supply and the methods of distributing it for granted.
It occured to me that I had began the piece with the intentions to make others consider the importance of life, and almost forcing the audience to sustain the life within, but through developing the idea, found myself realising how important water is for life, and felt this was important enough to change the path this piece went down.
One thing which I was worried about at the time, was the audience mistaking if for some kind of water feature/fountain, but I hope that they end up reading further into its meanings.
In order to try to reduce this from happening, I thought that perhaps I could use another piece in dialogue with it?
Before making this piece, I created another which focused on water conservation, and so I decided that perhaps this would work well opposite the other.
