The installation, which ran every night for 10 days, was primarily an experimental exercise, designed to illustrate how this type of building projection will potentially translate into a much larger integrated Cape Farewell Festival event, planned for Somerset House in 2006. The technical elements were co-ordinated by Sam Collins, who has worked with XL Video on several other arts projects. Malcolm Mellows was XL's project manager.
The two Barco G5 projectors were located in a specially built shed, just 13 metres away from the building, complete with super wide angle .8 lenses, producing a 17m-wide throw across the ornate pillars and stonework of the Seaman's Hall. The source material was stored on 2 Doremi hard drives, run in two loops - one 7 minutes long and the other 3 minutes long, with the two images overlaid creating random combinations of the two sets of footage.
XL's Malcolm Mellows said," It is always most enjoyable working with Sam Collins, who brings an eclectic mix of exciting and important arts projects to XL Video. In particular, the issues raised by the research for this educational exhibit will affect us all. Working together, Cape Farewell, Sam and XL Video have devised a powerful visual means by which the viewer cannot help but take note".
(Lee Baldock)
