Panel chair: Alison Bruce
The Immersive environment as a driver for environmental change; addressing the “Out of Sight Out of Mind” impacts of the Anthropocene on the Mar Menor, Spain.
CHARLOTTE GOULD AND PAUL SERMON
“Out of Sight Out of Mind” is a unique interactive 360° video experience of the Mar Menor that manifests the Anthropocene effects on the landscape as augmented, surreal and metaphysical interpretations of the artist’s experiences, during their residency and available secondary scientific data of the Mar Menor ecosystem. Through environmental, social, economic and cultural observations and encounters the team developed an immersive 360° environment that incorporates video and audio recordings with augmented, imaginary and predicted realities transformed from scientific data in obscure and pro-found guises. This 360° telematic installation incorporating live audience interaction within the original 360° video experience was exhibited at the Centro Cultural Puertas de Castilla in Murcia in May 2019. This collaborative project was developed following a ten-day residency on the Mar Menor, a 170 km² saltwater lagoon on the south east coast of Spain in September 2018, where the majority of the primary research took place by gathering 360° video material from observations, experiences and interviews. The project has been developed by a team of three UK artists, each bringing specialist experience and knowledge of 360° video to undertake the research and create a unique understanding and manifestation of the changing ecosystem of the Mar Menor. This collaborative project includes and combines Paul Sermon’s co-located telematic experiences in 360° live video environments, Charlotte Gould’s immersive 360° animated augmented reality and Jeremiah Ambrose’s gaze-controlled navigation through 360° video narratives. This practice-based team of artists undertook this research using a range of video and gaming software and advanced hardware devices, including Insta360 Pro 8K video cameras and Oculus Rift head-mounted-displays in conjunction with live video switchers. This has produced a range of ultra HD 360° outputs involving stereo 8K and real-time 4K environments with augmented live 360° video and animation sequences through live chroma-keying effects.
‘Delta’ an art exhibition in Huxley Building: a collaboration between the Schools of Art and Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences
SUSAN DIAB
In January 2020, third-year undergraduate students of Fine Art Critical Practice (FACP), School of Art, made new work and curated a site-specific exhibition within the lecture theatre foyer, Huxley Building at the University of Brighton. This new venture was a joint collaboration across the Schools of Art and the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (PABS), and arose out of discussions between Susan Diab, Senior Lecturer, FACP, and Mark Yeoman, Director of the Centre for Stress and Age-Related Disease.
The students were introduced to the communal spaces of Huxley Building and also enjoyed a tour of the labs and study areas where PABS students research and learn. The FACP students came up with their idea for an exhibition called ‘Delta’ about “procreation, life and death”. In smaller collaborations they produced artworks and installed and publicised their exhibition as a larger cohort team. This talk describes the experience of collaboration and how the students learnt how to respond to the particularities of a sciences-based learning environment producing work that was both surprising yet relevant to that context.
MobileImage – Use of mobile devices for flow visualisation, and imaging of fluid mechanics.
LOUSIE COLBOURNE, STEVEN BEGG & NWABUEZE EMEKWURU
MobileImage is a collaborative project funded by the Creative Futures Art/Science call (2021), aiming to enhance the creative interpretation of scientific findings & research processes, and aid the public understanding of science and technology.
This presentation reports on work-in progress of a project that brings together Steven Begg and Nwabueze Emekwuru from the Advanced Engineering Centre, with Louise Colbourne from the School of Art, and engages with two students from the MA Graphic design to develop a small interactive installation exhibition at the Dorset Place gallery space. The team explores modes of developing interactive and immersive designs for exhibition, based on the visual data provided by engineer Steven Begg.
Using 3D effects and animation software, the art team is creating an interpretation of the flow-patterns of the research data gathered by the scientists, in order to communicate the functionality of the particle movement through interactive displays and projected graphics. The art project also explores creative coding and UX design to show the flow visualisations and invite audience members to interact with the display. The project enables students to engage with research, and to develop their own visual responses within the animated sequences while they explore new modes of production to create the desired effects and test out the requirements for interactivity. The supervision of Louise Colbourne supports the process and development of the work, while she also coordinates various specialist elements from other staff and technical facilities at the University to enable the finished outcome.