Feedback from End Users

Quotes from the public/ end users of our installation:

Elderly man felt that it "Brightened up the space because the space is normally very dull and boring".  He "couldn't understand how Sean was walking on his head" whilst he was looking through the camera obscura.  He also commented on how he "disliked the St Anne's sculpture" as he "doesn't see the artistic point of it".  Overall he thought it was a "perfect" installation.


Darragh explaining how the camera obscura works to a passer - by

Two women "Loved the addition of colour" and wanted to know if "it was always going to be here [St. Anne's Square]" because they "think it should be a permanent fixture".

Young Girl "I loved running through the shapes.  It is like playing in the park".


Young girl running through the shapes and spaces


Teenager "I could relate to this product as I am currently studying about how cameras work and different lens in school in Physics class".

Woman "I am artist and I just loved the abstract shapes you created of the landmarks of Belfast City.  Good job".
  

Woman looking through camera obscura



Review of our Installation

Overall we feel that our installation was a sucess.  The bright and vibrant colours of the partitions attracted people to our installation, as the area in St Anne's Square where it was located lacked colour and interest.  The area was in fact short listed for the "Carbuncle Cup" which awards the ugliest buildings in Britain.  One describes it as "a confused barcode".

Once we had grabbed the attention of the passers-by, many then became intrigued by the camera obscura.  Many did not realise the concept of the installation until they were able to use it themselves.  They were fascinated by the fact that people could look through a simple box and could see an inverted image displayed on the screen.  It appealed to a wide audience, eg the older, more mature people were interested in the theory behind the camera obscura whilst the younger children found it fun to be able to run through the partitions.  And as they did so, they were able to become more aware and get to know places in Belfast.

From our testing of the installation and feedback from some of the users, we made a few changes to our initial set-up of the installation.  We moved the position of the partitions in order to catch the attention of people coming and going from Emily Lane, the car park and the main entrance.  This allowed us to have a wider audience. 

The distance between the partitions were approximately 2 metres apart to allow the users to enjoy the full experience better by being able to comfortably move through the space and shapes of the iconic Belfast partitions.

We were aware that the weather in October can be wet and windy.  Therefore we had to make our installation out of materials which were able to withstand such conditions.  On the day, it proved to be an essential criteria as the weather was abysmal  with torrential rain and light winds.  Luckily our installation did stand up to such inclement weather conditions.  We did however have to be conscious of the importance of recycling and minimising our budget spent on the installation.  Therefore we used recycled MDF and purchased paint from a shop offering damaged paint products which was less expensive.

Testing our Final Design

In order to get feedback on our installation we decided to test it on site.  We hired a van to allow us to transport our partitons down to the site.  As we predicted people's eyes where caught by the colourful partitions and they were eager to investigate further.
We talked to and interviewed people and found out that they were particularly interested in the camera obscura and how it worked.  Children thought it was fun looking at their friends walk through the partitions whilst older people found the history of the camera obscura fascinating.

A passer - by looking through the camera obscura at the partitions

The installation is eye - catching as the partitions are a vast size and the colours we used are bright and vibrant in order to attract people to our space.  They are also a dramatic contrast from the white area of St. Anne’s Square.

We positioned the installation so that people can arrive at the camera obscura from Emily Lane and the St. Anne's Square car park.  People can also arrive at the main entrance to see the partitions.
We made the space between each partition approximately 2 meters apart so that they were at a comfortable distance for people to move in and out and discover the shapes and space.  They were placed to encourage pedestrians to walk in a detoured path.

The use of the camera allows people to perceive the place in a totally different way due to the inverted image.

Our installation was built to suit all ages of people.  The older people found the camera obscura interesting whilst children liked running through the shapes and spaces.  It was very appropriate for families.




Painting the cut-outs

We painted the mdf cut-outs using emulsion paint and covered it in a protective gloss.  This was to ensure the paint did not run off the mdf if it rained or came in contact with water.  We purchased the paint at Harry Nablets located on North Street, Belfast.  This shop sells paints and other decorating materials and instruments at a cheaper price which are second hand or slightly damaged.

Our painting disaster!



 

Aimee painting the partitions



Making the MDF cut - outs

The cutouts were made from mdf which we purchased at Macnaughton Building Centre located on the Balmoral Road,  Belfast.

The images of the 5 landmarks in Belfast were drawn onto the mdf and cutout using a jigsaw as shown below.

Drawing on the mdf sheets

Drawing the 5 different landmarks on the mdf sheets

Cutting out the shapes:

Sand paper was then used to smooth the edges of the cut outs.

6 and 8 cm timber "legs" were attached onto the cut-outs to provide support and allow them to stand up.  We were given the timber free of charge from one of the group members father.  This timber can be recycled after our installation presentation.

 

H & W crane cut-out

Testing the Camera Obscura

We made a model of the camera obscura using black card, tracing paper and masking tape.  On the front of the box there was a hole which light travels through and the back of the box consists of tracing paper which was kept in the dark to allow the image to be inverted.  The image was hard to see and therefore this model was unsucessful.



We placed a sheet over the camera obscura to keep the back
of the camera in darkness and the front of it in light.  It was
important to do this to achieve a clear, focused image.

Testing the camera obscura



For the next model, the box was made out of wood.

The box containing a convex lens.


A lens was added in the box.  This made the image on the screen more clear and easy to see. 



An inverted image of the objects can clearly be seen.

Testing the camera obscura on-site:

An inverted image of Sean standing in St. Anne's Square



An inverted image through the camera obscura of St Anne's Cathedral


We found inspiration of the camera obscura box from the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdUjGGgcQo4

Final Design

For our final design we developed the camera obscura idea.  In order to attract people to our creation we decided to design a "maze".  This would allow people to become more inquisitive about the area and be intrigued about what is in the centre of our space.

This sketch shows the 2D mdf cut outs surrounding the camera obscura box.
The shape of the exterior walls reflect the path of light as it passes through a lens.

The users must walk in the path shown in order to reach the camera obscura box.  When they reach the box, they will be able to see an inverted image of the other users walking along the path through the maze.


Yet we then realised that the mdf cut outs of random shapes had no context.  We wanted to change this and so we changed the design to allow the cut outs to become 5 of the main sites and landmarks in Belfast.  This fulfilled what we first initially wanted...to allow people to see parts of Belfast in the enclosed area of St. Anne's Square.

Final design: Mdf objects include The Waterfront Hall, H &W cranes,
Cavehill, The Albert Clock and St. Anne's Cathedral.

We called it a day and slept on all our ideas. We needed a design that incorporated everything we designed previously. It was then when we researched ‘camera obscura’. We decided to go back to the camera idea but take a different approach that was more engaging, interesting and educational.

To capture an image you must keep the film in complete darkness until it is time to take the picture. Then when you want to record an image you let some light in. This is the concept of a camera in its most basic level. We, however, wanted to take this simplicity to a whole new level and re-create the first ever camera, that is camera obscura.

In fact the term camera is shortened from camera obscura which means dark room in latin.  The principles of camera obscura date back as far as ancient Greece, when Aristotle noticed how ligh passing through a small hole in a darkroom produced an inverted image on the wall opposite.  However evidence shows that camera obscura dates back further than this.  Stone age people may have used camera obscura to produce the worlds first art in cave drawings.  In the 10th century, Arabian scholar Al Hassan used camera obscura to prove scientifically that light travels in straight lines, in the 13th century camera obscura was used by astronomers to view  the and in 16th century camera obscura became an invaluable tool for artists who used it to create drawings with accurate detail and perfect perspective, portable camera obscuras were used for this purpose.

IDEA 5 was to make a portable camera obscura and this became our final idea.

this picture shown above shows our sketches for our final design.

June 2006 Stephen Koplowitz did a installation in NYC called ‘Revealed’. It was a five week public art installation. It was a walk-in camera obscura that offered the public a chance to experience one of the worlds first imaging technologies. The camera was large enough to accomodate up to 25 people at one time. In calibration with Koplowitz achitects Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman in 2005 began designing the portable camera obscura. The installation was seen by more than 5,000 people over the course of 5weeks. “Almost everyone who experienced the event had never seen a camera obscura and had little or no knowledge on its role in the history of photography.

The two pictures above show two quick mock models of what IDEA 4 would have looked like.  Basically it was a fixed internal cylinder and a larger rotating external cyclinder.  A person would have stood in the internal cylinder as the external cylinder rotated.  The outer cylinder would have had pictures of significant buildings around Belfast at equal distances apart.  The experience inside the inner tube would have been interesting as the light coming in from the different coloured acetate sheets would have filled the space and this paired up with the pictures would have made out installation different, original and worth while. 

We had a slight problem on our hands as to how the external cylinder was to rotate. We thought we could make a simple circular track for the structure to sit on.  The downward force of the structure had to be spread out equally otherwise it simply would not work. We made two small models to try and think of ways of rotating our installation. As a group we engineered a way of doing just that. The idea was to get a line of coke cans on a steel track and set the structure on top... we did various weight tests to see if the cans collectively could withstand such a force and through calculation it was proven that they could. The cans had to be full though in order to do this. The two pictures below show our small models of our rotating system.

the picture above shows our first attempt at creating a rotating system however it did not work

Again we went against this idea because overall it was a simple idea made complicated. The rotating system was very technical and if it wasn’t made right could have ruined are whole installation so there was indeed a risk factor involved as well. The budget in creating this design would have been too much and if I’m honest the design and idea would not have fitted the bill.

Third Design Idea

From the image above we made a model.  The idea progressed on from previous ideas and it was to play with natural light.  It was a simple idea with a simple concept.  We would make a large scale camera which was portable and place it in-front of significant buildings around Belfast and within the camera we would display information on the building regarding its history, construction, owner, activities within the building and so on.  The idea was that a tourist or member of the general public would enter the installation and experience the sites of Belfast from a different and interesting angle...worthy of taking a picture!

We then developed on from this to try and change the persons perception of the area and install different thickness of sheets that would leave the image bulged, dented, twirled or squeezed. We then proceeded and experiment with different thickness' and shapes of lenses.

The two pictures shown above show the final model for IDEA 3, after further discussion with our internal group and peers we conclude that the idea was again just an enlargement of something that has already been designed and at the end of the day was just a large box with a looking hole. But we liked the idea of the history of photography and its graduation on from the last design which was experimenting with light.

We evaluated that this idea needed to be more interactive, it needed to be portable and of greater interest. We came up with IDEA 4 quite quickly after IDEA 3.

Second Design Idea (Continued)

From the sketches we proceeded to make a model of what this installation would look like. We thought a simple box would keep the internal layout simple because with the sheer amount of things that were going on any other shape would had made things very confusing. A square help give our ideas structure and gave users of the space ease with direction around the space.

In terms of materials used we thought we would naturally try, as students studying Architecture, to keep the budget to a minimum. The frame needed to be structurally stable and sound and with one of our members having experience with wood, timber was the best option. The envelope needed to keep the internal space dry, we thought we cud cover the structure with black bin bags. Overall this would have been relatively cheap and easy to do.

The basic wooden structure for IDEA 2.  It is made using coffee sticks.
The wooden frame was then covered using black card.

Aimee cutting acetate sheets which were used as the
windows of our model

For experimental and investigational purposes we took pictures of a member of the group with the colored acetate sheets in-front of the camera to see if the sheets were translucent enough.

Final IDEA 2 model

IDEA 2 would have been very effective because the way light hits the floor and surrounding walls of the internal space strikes off a calming mood in my opinion. The space could therefore also have been a place to relax from the everyday rush and hectic working environment and thus serving more than one purpose. We did not finish with this idea however we felt that there was room for further development.

IDEA 2 was all about playing with natural light and subtly suggested that maybe a camera was the way to go. What was the first camera and how did it work? It is the camera obscura. The light goes through the lens bending it. The light coming from the flash bulb gives the picture tone. This information helped us develop onto IDEA 3.     

Second Design Idea

Following on from our first idea we thought we would create an installation that was more engaging and informative about the sites around Belfast. We wanted something that incorporated everything that is Belfast into a single space. If we were to get a large vacuum cleaner and suck up Belfast into a single bag that’s what our space would be like. Everything would have been recorded for instance, key buildings, sounds, activities, history... you name it our space had it.  So we started off with a few sketches of what this space would look like...

ADD SKETCHES

 In our second idea we thought it would be interesting if we started playing with light.  In St. Anne's Square there is a lot of natural light coming in from above due to the construction being is so open, the walls are also white and so a lot of light is reflected. We thought we could use this to our advantage when designing our second idea. A large box was basically our idea, although this sounds relatively simple the layout of the design along with other features made it interesting. Keeping in mind our first idea of music was going to bring life and atmosphere into St. Anne's Square we thought a sitting area made from large earphones would be somewhat relaxing, original perhaps or eye catching. But not quite original enough, we needed to become more creative.



Creating the model for IDEA 2



Light was what we were going to explore, we thought of displaying pictures of key locations around Belfast on coloured acetate sheets with information such as directions and history below each picture. Earphones hanging down from each picture of a key buildings in Belfast would have the sounds from that particular area, the ground below each would be shaped like the ground where the building stood (if a river ran though nearby we would put in a water feature, if the building was on an incline we would create a raised platform) and in the centre of the room would be a rotating chair so one person could experience Belfast in one rotating movement. It was with all these ideas that we came up with a name for Project Two... ‘ A Sense of Belfast’.

Final model for IDEA 2

Our First Design Idea

Our first idea was to create a large pair of earphones. Its location would have been in St. Anne’s Square which is usually very quiet and lacking atmosphere. One question was... How do we get people into our space to witness and experience our product?  This question arose because St. Anne’s Square does not usually attract many people. Our idea was to use the earphones extension as a subliminal means of direction, a lot like the large blue statues found in Victoria Square.  They are walking in the direction of Victoria Square and are quite large sculptures.  We feel beneath them and almost inclined to follow them hence subliminally leading you into Victoria Square. This was therefore the idea behind the earphone extension.  I think on seeing the large wire people would be intrigued and want to know why it was sitting there.

In terms of making the installation we had an idea that the whole structure could be made out of chicken wire, given a more defined shape using silicon expanding foam and finished using white paint. In terms of music a sound system would have been installed in one of the earphones and an iPod left outside so people could sit and enjoy music from childhood music, to classical all the way to rave. This made the product interactive and depending on the music choice, relaxing, exciting, energetic... a whole spectrum of moods and feelings came with this idea.

Aimee creating the iPod earphones out of clay

We went against this however because it lacked creativity and imagination. We were in a way creating a larger model of something that already existed.



Final outcome:  The white surrounding box is used to
 represent the surrounding buildings of St Anne's Square.



Final outcome



Design Ideas Introduction

When it came to design ideas there was a vast array of ideas presented from each member in the group. Many were immediately scrapped due to feasibility in terms of budget, time and complexity.

Others made the short list because they were either relevant to the space, interactive or somewhat informative. 

Callum sketching ideas to display
them to the group

An example of one of out sketched ideas

 

Our intention with each design was to try to capture the essence of what is Belfast in a way, that when people use it they get a small glimpse of Belfast in terms of either its context, movement or light. We tried to incorporate the sites, sounds and smells of Belfast so that the person using our space left it with an experience worth sharing.  Our designs feed off three key words... CHANGE, IMPACT, IMPROVE. Our designs had to change the person’s perception: the design had to have impact but it also had to improve on the existing site. Our ideas were then sketched down as a group and if we thought the idea followed on from these three key ideas we created a model. It was important that we kept an ordered process.

Mark making models

Darragh making a model of his idea



Diarmuid sketching ideas.



Sense of Belfast

Following on from our comprehensive study of Nick’s Warehouse in Project One we thought that for our second project, ‘a meaningful intervention that improves the experience of a selected activity space’, it would be best if we selected a different location within the Cathedral Quarter. We wanted to experience a space that wasn’t contained within four walls.  We wanted a space that had no limits.

Project Two is named ‘Intervention of Making’.  From this title our group knew that the designs had be be primarily creative, inventive and positively contribute to the quality of the existing  space we would later choose.

The brief asked us to create a product which was a real size installation. As a group we decided that this product had to be interactive, attractive and the key idea behind out product was to change the person’s perception of the area... How were we going to do this? We needed ideas.

ANALYSIS OF ACTIVITIES
In order to give us an insight into who uses the facility of St. Anne's Square, we decided to carry out an analysis of the activities carried out in the area.  This involved going down to the location and monitoring the activities available and the types of people who frequent the area.  We recorded our information on a chart. 

*ADD IN ANALYSIS SHEET

Initial Site Investigation

The group decided to meet in the vicinity of the Cathedral Quarter to decide on a location to erect our new system our new system/ concept.

We decided to either locate in a large open space like St Anne's Square or in the narrow cobbled street where Nick's Warehouse is located.

We decided that Hill Street was very narrow and a large construction would impede on pedestrains walking along the street.  We also would have to facilitate a 1.8m walk-way around the construction.

These factors along with the fact that there is a constant flow of traffic in the street lead us to decide on an alternative more open and spacious location.

The obvious location was therefore St. Anne's Square which is wide and spacious.  It is generally white in colour and this would lend itself well to highlight our design.




St. Anne's Square



St. Anne's Square