Personal Project

For my personal project I have decided to create an art installation using smashed televisions, old radios and visual and audio projections. The installation will be based around the notion that the media controls the world and although it is a brilliant way of communication it can also spew out propaganda and lies, I'd also like to show the explosive growth of the digital world. The world we live in today is now hugely controlled my digital media. More than 1.4 Billion people own a smart phone, 1.2 Billion people have a facebook account and 98% of people aged 18-24 use social media. For my installation I'd like to show these statistics visually. I'm not necessarily stating that the growth of the digital world is a negative thing, I'd just like to highlight that other great sources of information such as books and actual face to face conversation are being neglected due to this growth. I'd also like to create a sense that privacy is becoming more unobtainable as the digital world continues to grow. To show this I will show CCTV footage of people in train stations and on the streets through projections, I shall have another projection of a watchful eye as though its watching the audience whilst they are looking at the installation.

There will be a small set in an L shape, stacked up against the wooden boards shall be old televisions and radios. Most of the televisions will be smashed through the screen, the contents shall be cleared out of the television creating an empty space inside. Inside some of the televisions will be the wiring which shall flow down to the floor in a messy tangle, others will have torn pieces of newspapers stuffed inside and around the televisions. Some of the televisions shall have red spray paint splashed across them whilst showing a loop of news reports from natural disasters, terrorist attacks and reports of murder, other televisions will show static. Inside some of the televisions will be different lighting using LED lights. Again in a number of the televisions I shall have old dusty looking books to create a feeling that paper books are being neglected for the digital media. On either side of the set shall be two fans. Attached to the fans will be magnetic tape from video and audio tapes, when the fans are switched on the tape will blow from left to right. Between some of the televisions will be old radio recordings and advertisements to create a large jumble of sounds. On the floor of the set I shall have various newspaper pieces scattered around, each of them will have a footprint in black paint suggesting that the internet is not disposable unlike paper printings which can be lost, thrown away and torn up. Also on the floor I shall have old suitcases with pages of books and old letters strewn inside them to show how books and other forms of communication are becoming lost and forgotten about.

 For the visual effects in the installation I shall have a series of projections. My first projection will be of an erratically moving eye. To do this I will film a short sequence of the eye movement, using after effects I will then key out the rest of the face so that it's just a visual of the moving eye. I will then project this onto one side of the televisions to create the feeling that the audience is being watched whilst watching. The next projection I will be showing in the installation will be a loop of different parts of CCTV footage of people in train stations, at bus stops and on the streets creating  the sense that we are always being watched. This projection will be shown in a space in the middle of the installation playing on a continuous loop.