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From the beginning of my project my aim has been to capture some of what remains of the architecture of the industrial era in an attempt to represent this period of time through modern digital technology and in this way make a connection between our current digital revolution and the industrial revolution of the 19th & 20th century.
This essay is a reflection on my two year journey into the project, on my learning, development and contextualization of ‘Industrialism brought forward’.
This is the link to the PDF file of my essay
To represent my work within publicity for the show I have chosen an extract from the final version of the video and a few of the valves. The reason why I haven’t chosen the full typology is because its orientation is portrait and it will look too small on the projection. For the same reason I choose just one of the valves to represent my work on the postcard and to have continuity I have done the same for the catalog and website. I look forward to seeing all of it.
MADA10 website: http://www.mada2010.co.uk
MADA10 Facebook: http://en-gb.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=216061&id=123235641039024
Short Artist Statement:
This project observes functional architecture from the industrial era and its environment, exploring this study through methodical photographic documentation. It comprises the mixing of digital and analogue technologies and engages with the materiality of the output surfaces to effectively capture the suspended and timeless state of its primal subjects.
1. Show reel
2. Postcard
This piece started as two series photographs. The first one, Black Water, was composed of 1,045 photographs and the second one, Two Gasometers, was composed of 873 photographs. These digital photographs were taken on a small fine quality, as I had to think about the output before the input. Small Fine quality on a Canon D20 camera means 1.2 Mb per picture at a resolution of 1728 x 1152 pixels. The maximum output quality – HDTV wide screen – is 1920 x 1080 and on an Imac screen is 1680 x 1050. This means that the Small Fine quality of the pictures is more than enough for the chosen output.
Once I composed the two footage together I encounter the problem that my film was 56.27 GB for a duration of 9 minutes. The settings of the sequence were Animation compressor and exported as a Quick Time movie. This massive size was quite difficult for the computers to reproduce smoothly. I had to drastically reduce the size if I wanted the movie to work.
I tried different compressions. On the first one the settings of the sequence were DV-PAL (720 x 576)with Animation compressor, this gave me a small film size but the resolution quality of the Quick Time movie (H 264) wasn’t good and the pixel size was reduced. I thought this could be still OK if I were to show it as a projection. But I really wanted to use a better quality display. By recommendation I also tried to change the settings of the sequence to HDV 1440 x 1080 the result was better but the file size was still quite big.
The next step was to find a good compressor for Quick Time. I tried Apple Pro Res and this gave me a better result, at HDV 1440 x 1080 I got 13.6 GB. To try to compress it a little further and still keep the same good quality I used Apple Pro Res 1080 x 720 and this has given me a file size of 6. 81GB which is a big difference from the initial 56.27 GB. The resolution of the movie is still good so I am quite happy to be able to show it without technical glitches.
These are the different sequences of footage composed in Final Cut Pro. The average number of photographs per footage is 800, the frame rate is 8fps.
Dark Canal Water
Blue Canal Water
Close-up Reflection of gasometer
Reflection of gasometers
The next one is a composite of two sequences overlayed, as I said in the symposium, to mirror the process used on the valve images where I merged two different exposures I am exploring the merging of two different footages into one. This presents to the viewer a double set of information of exactly the same location captured at different times, bringing the concept of time capture closer to mind.
The sequence shown below is just the basis for the final piece where the pace of the sequence will slow down at random intervals reminding us of the static nature of the footage and bringing back the pensive quality of photography.
The following are two rough sketches for the proposed installation of the screens that will show the final footage. The idea is to show the same footage on three screens sequentially so the water movement is emphasized, traveling from one screen to the next one (past-present-future), showing the time line and narrative by using the vertical spatial display. I think that the formalism of this display ties in with the formality of the valve typology displayed on a frame. It makes a connection in between the two pieces of work strengthening their viewing context.
Front view
Back view
A previous idea was to have it in a low rectangular box, with the monitors looking up, simulating the way I took the footage of the water.
and this was a former idea of having 3 plasma screens on a corner set, it has an inclusive feeling but it is very different from the way in which I am displaying my valve piece, if I were to have a room just for the displaying of this piece, this shape could have been a good proposal but with large x large scale screens instead.
Industrialism brought forward….
After the presentation of my video I didn’t have a lot of feedback from my peers. I was expecting a few more comments but I am happy as the general reception was very good. I was asked about the output of the typology and I explained that is going to be two sheets of paper with 6 valves printed by the process of photo intaglio. I also mentioned that I would like to continue expanding my project and continue with the theme of typology in the future as I think that two years part-time are not sufficient to finalize this project. I still feel that I have more research and work to do.
TEXT for the video:
The aim of my project has been to capture some of what remains from the architecture of the industrial era in an attempt to represent this period of time through modern digital technology making a connection between our current digital revolution and the industrial revolution.
My work has a documentary nature and I have used photography as my main methodology. The weight of photography as a documenting tool can be observed in its history as an indexical sign and with its reference to the past, the ‘still’ creates a signifier of the memorable.
The following are key contextual points that helped to form the foundation from which my project was constructed:
I have taken inspiration from photographers of the New Objectivity movement (1920s) like Renger-Patzsch, Karl Blossfeldt (1928) and Emmanuel Sougez (1939) characterised by a detached, almost scientific objectivity and precise attention to detail. These aesthetics kept influencing photographers in the 1960s such as industrial photographer Wolfgang Sievers.
They also influenced Bernd and Hilla Becher whose photographic prints where ordered to form object families – called typologies. By putting the images next to each other the rhetoric of a document was reinforced. An archive concept was created, photography being a starting point for the memory to work.
Most recently, influenced by Duchamp, we have Hiroshi Sugimoto and his series Conceptual Forms (2004). He is interested in the 19 and 20th centuries. He regards all photographs as being found objects, “they are stealing the image from the world” and making it into a multiple.
In connection to my moving image piece, I must mention Étienne-Jules Marey (1890s) whose work was developed out of methodological and precise experiments. His experiments to capture movement where named Chronophotography, which were a set of photographs of a moving image taken from the same viewpoint at equal intervals.
The theme of water, an aspect of my own piece, is recurrent in Roni Horn’s work. In her installations for Library of Water (2007) she created an archive of water from 24 glacial sources across Iceland. And her Still Water piece (1999) is a series of photographs of water with tiny numbers that refer to footnotes presenting a series of quotations on the moods and narratives that the river evokes.
Visiting different industrial locations I observed that a key component to machinery of the time was their valves, both an essential artefact for the machine to function and a direct allusion to the human/machine relationship and dependency.
Water was also a very important element, the vital force that made steam engines possible – and with them the creation of numerous kinds of revolutionary machinery – and it was a vital means of transport, the canal system being the main artery for commerce and industrial expansion.
I considered that my project, being a photographic documentation, should have a methodical and definite stylistic approach. I researched what was going to become my methodology; a way of working that will allow my referents to talk for themselves. I explored different techniques to acquire a good range of tonality in spaces with low lighting issues.
I have chosen two different ways of representing the two elements (valves and water) and currently I am working on finalising my two pieces.
1. The valves I have photographed methodically and I intend to present them forming a typology of 12 that will depict the archival desire invested in the capturing of these images. The long exposure photographs have been treated in postproduction by using an HDR process in Photomatix and then synthesising two different exposures in Photoshop. They have then been taken through a process of photo intaglio. Because of the nature of my image referent I find it appropriate to reproduce it in archival paper made using a traditional cylinder mould machine from 1907. The surface of this paper has a gentle texture made out of cotton that offers a long life and durability, so in some way this paper has been infused with similar craftsmanship as that of the valves. By mixing the sophisticated digital processes with a printing technique that has its origins at the birth of photography I am trying to make a reference to the encapsulation of time as well as investing thought into the different output surfaces in which the digital image can be reproduced.
2. The water, I have chosen to represent this second aspect as a piece of moving image made out of Chronophotography. Chronophotography allows the subversion of real time to a different pace, it creates a juxtaposition of technologies; photography representing a pensive moment and film representing the present. Photographs when showed one after the other give us the illusion of motion whilst presenting the subtleties of individually captured moments.
I methodically photographed the same spot of water on different days. I took over 6000 photographs that compose five different captures. To mirror the process used on the valve images where I merged two different exposures I am exploring the merging of two different footages into one. This presents to the viewer a double set of information of exactly the same location captured at different times, bringing the concept of time capture closer to mind.
The pace of the sequence will slow down at random intervals reminding us of the static nature of the footage and bringing back the pensive quality of photography.
Location: Regents canal, Andrew’s Road, Hackney
The London canal system played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution, at the time the most common way of transport in land were pack horses. Canals became a reliable way to transport goods. The early 19th century was their golden age, a good number of canals were built and shipping companies flourished.
Regent’s Canal started to be built in 1812 and was extensively used for the transport of merchandise. Most canals fell into decline by 1920s when steam trains became the regular means of transport, however Regent’s Canal continued to be have commercial traffic till 1948 when it was nationalised, by this time the canal’s importance for commerce was dwindling. By the late 1960s commercial vessels had almost ceased to operate. In 1969 the closure of the Regent’s Canal Dock put an end to shipping.
After a few visits to the same spot and 6.681 photographs later I have 5 different captures to start working on compositing time lapse photography footage. The images where taken at regular intervals of 5 seconds from a fixed viewpoint. Below there are examples of individual frames of different footage:
11.00am. Canon EOS20D, 50mm, 200 ISO, f5.6
11.00am. Canon EOS20D, 35mm, 200 ISO, f8
11.00am. Canon EOS40D, 50mm, 200 ISO, f8
11.00am. Canon EOS40D, 50mm, 200 ISO, f8
11.00am. Canon EOS40D, 35mm, 200 ISO, f8
I took this images on a small fine quality setting which equals 1728 x 1152 pixels. If we look at video image quality we can see that HDV can be 1280 x 720 or 1440 x 1080 and HDTV (wide screen) would be 1920 x 1080 so the small fine quality is a good choice for the chosen output.
Chronophotography, a bit of history…
The capture of sequences of images was used at the end of the nineteenth century in a scientific manner to study movement for a variety of purpose such as medicine, biology (by practitioners such as Étienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard J. Muybridge) and ‘scientific management’ techniques for industrial efficiency (Frederick Winslow Taylor). At the beginning of the twenty first century we find artist using these techniques exploring the growing relationship between cinema, photography and what lies in between, this presented a number of possibilities and ideas that have been taken forward within the visual arts. According to Ian Roberston, Chronophotography alludes to ‘…issues regarding the veracity of photography, the use of serialism and repetition, the role of memory and imagination in acts of perception and our subjective experience of time and space developed by Bergson in his theories on felt time and duration which he developed contemporaneously with chronophotography’.
E.J Marey has had a great influence in artistic practice, although the initial intention of his work was scientific his work has been considered not only an influence but art itself. Marey used the term Chronophotography to describe a set of photographs of a moving image taken from the same viewpoint at equal intervals. His work was exhibited in Paris (Palais de Chaillot 1963) along with Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Gino Severini. This exhibition linked the work of Marey with the Avant Garde; setting a relationship in between Chronophotography, Conceptual Art, Surrealism and Futurism.
In 1891 E.J Marey recorded ‘La Vague‘ on the bay of Naples. He was seeking a better understanding of movement. In his analysis he remains objective, his work was developed out of methodological and precise experiments and following a positivist attitude with its coherence, logic and attention to detail. His work also can be seen within the realm of artistic representation as throughout the course of his ‘experiments’ he cultivated a passion for the intangible, the movements of fluids such as air, water and smoke. He allowed the beauty of the shapes he observed to develop within the simplicity of the arrested image.
Étienne-Jules Marey, La Vague, 1891
Another example of Marey’s chronophotography, a collection of his films on Body Motions dating 1893:
