As a group, we decided that in order to narrow down our final idea that it would be useful for all team members to come up with how they could see this project unfolding. We had agreed in a previous meeting that the physical presentation of this project is going to be in the form of an installation/exhibition – a space (i.e place!) that the user can explore and be immersed in.
I’ll get into the specifics of my idea in a moment; first I want to show what inspired it. In Portsmouth, they have a series of installations as a part of We Shine Portsmouth where artists display their exhibitions around the city. In 2021, British artists Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer used 3D laser scanning technology, a voile screen, projected film, sound and lighting effects, an installation was created that could be folded down and moved to another location, like a mythical vessel.
The way that they projected this on such a scale was really interesting. The movement of the ship, the surround sound and the lighting come together to create an engaging experience.
My Idea
So – how do I envision this project? During our first group brainstorm, one idea that was mentioned was experiencing and scanning a the same place at different times of the day/over multiple days. I loved this concept and thought that the vast array of skills this group has, that this has the potential to be incredibly immersive.
Where?
The News Steps that go from the top of the Royal Mile down to Waverley station almost broke me when I walked up them with a very heavy rucksack one day – so logically, I would like to spend the whole day running up and down taking LiDAR scans.
These are a winding set of steps in the heart of the city, broken up by consistent landings where visitors can often be seen catching their breath. These landings could also be very useful for placing the LiDAR scanner on.
Something to keep in mind is that it can get busy, and it is a very expensive set of equipment – are there risk assessments needed? Do one of us stand guard in a hi-vis jacket?
When?
As I am wanting to capture the passing of time, scans and field recordings would be taken periodically throughout the day, possibly even over two days as it would be interesting to capture the “changing of the day”. Either way, I would record minimum over 24 hours, from early morning to late at night (12am-11pm?) take it in shifts to record this OR on multiple days and splice it together as if it were one.
What?
What is this going to look like as an instillation? I envision this having 3 rear projection screens surrounding the user. Front view: POV facing up the stairs; Side views: LiDAR split down the middle, left and right respectively.
In front of the user, near the centre of the three screens, would be the interactive control that allows for moving forward or backward in time. As time moves forward, the images change accordingly to the scans at that time while simultaneously moving up the stairs. As time goes backwards, it reverses.
Accompanying the images of the scans, there is lighting in the room that reflects the lighting at the time of day – sunrise, midday, sunset etc. There would also be a couple of speakers in the corners that are outputting the sounds recorded.
It could also be really interesting to have a button that transforms the ‘normal’ place into a distorted reality of sorts – into a ‘non-place’ where we have edited the LiDAR scans, morphed, twisted, warped them. Colours and sounds change to the opposites etc like being transported into a twilight zone.
How?
Equipment that I know we need:
-
- LiDAR scanner
- uCreate laptop
- Projection screens for rear projection
- Laptop with GPU capable of supporting multiple projections.
- Slider?
We would be creating the movie/animation and they would just be scrubbing through the footage essentially.
Take a lidar scan on each landing of the steps and then manually align them (due to height difference).
Molly Munro
6th February 2023
