Contraterrene was my first experiment that specifically included applying a texture to a sphere and making it rotate. Applying a circular mask (extreme vignetting) helped maintain an abiguity of size, as in parts it could look like a planet through a telescope or tiny microbes in a petri dish.
Contraterrene, streamed from Unity, digital projection,
MA Digital Arts interim exhibition, 2021
FACTITIA v1, streamed from Unity, digital projection, 2021
Before seeing the Ryoji Ikeda exhibition, I wasn't sure what I was trying show with my work. Not that I do now, but I really resonated with his data verse trilogy. Full wall projections of the Earth with all sorts of crazy shit going on around it. I played around with making the globe in contraterrene more realistic and adding a moon to go back and forth.
Once I had done enough of that, I looked into generating procedural particle systems on a bigger scale than I had done previously - in Purview.
Experimentation with pixelization and noise was more short-lived than it should have been as I reflect on my final piece. When I worked at the University's kit room, I had to calibrate large format cameras. One calibration tool for the RED Epic is the noise profile on the top left of the grid. I've loved white noise in sound and I've loved the connection to space. With the static noise on empty analogue TV channels being linked to cosmic background radiation - remnants of the Big Bang.
Together, these elements of experimentation came together to create FACTITIA. I found it difficult for the most part, getting my head around what I wanted and what I liked and how I wanted to represent it.
A fair bit of experimentation came from just talking about what I was doing with my peers until it made more and more sense to me.
While I love my colourful chaotic images on the screen, there is something special about using a projector in monochrome. Not only is the image larger and impressive due to size, but it becomes something to interact with. I hope that those that visit the gallery and project space interact with the projections and have fun intergrating themselves into the piece.