WALKING ON WATER - REFLECTION

using an old boat, live video feed and some creative thinking we transported the public into a reimagined freemans bay, pre-development. ...before the land broke the surface of the water.

our concept evolved from a starting point of wanting to showcase an interesting part of aucklands geographical history and involve people in this narrative.

innitially we sought to create a free-standing history/info booth with buttons. then we decided it needed to be interactive and fun, so we chose the location of freemans bay/victoria park and set about to recapture a snapshot of what was here before so that we could place a ghostly likeness of passers by into the shot which they could interact with like one does with a mirror.

the juxt of position of the of old and new landscapes, images of people in the old, reimagined scene and the boat with its cross shaped mast/ sail and dated lines, are cohesive with one another, suggestive of our overall theme, yet obviously out of place in the contemporary setting. i believe this is what gives our project much validity and intrigue.

we worked well as a group, bouncing ideas off one another and constantly scrutinising our actions/direction to ensure a good result.

on crit day we had a small glitch in that the person who is in charge of turning off the electricity at victoria park market had not been informed that we had arranged the two front sockets to be on until 7pm. fortunately we were able to track down a security guard to unlock a stall so we could feed our project the vital electricity. it took a little longer to set up because of this but when it was going the whole spectacle generated attention and involvement from people.

after the first showing at victoria park market we decided to use the sail to project onto rather than using the original, small lcd screen. this refinement proved to be the final piece of the puzzle - completing the aesthetic and lending the mystic created by using an uneven fabric screen and darkened setting.

WALKING ON WATER - FREEMANS BAY RETROSPECTIVE

final concept, developments and conclusions

we chose to display a screen in an old dinghy next to victoria park market, cutting movement from a live feed into a hypothetical reimagining of freemans bay. thus, placing passers by into the historical narrative as they pass by.

footage was taken at islington bay, auckland. this location being chosen as it closely resembles the topography and physical characteristics of freemans bay in 1840 (as depicted in drawings/photos from that time).
we are using the old dinghy to house the screen because this draws further on the fact that where the viewer currently stands (in situe of freemans bay/victoria park market) used to be where the ocean stood.
170 years ago they would have been splashing around in the middle of the bay.

we are linking the concepts of the missing water of freemans bay to the relevance this has to us as inhabitants of contemporary aotearoa.

we have created a window to the past;

we used MAX/MSP to program the video feeds together and decided to add the image of the back of the boat to the bottom of the shot to help the viewer identify the link between what they see on screen and the current physical landscape they see before them.
also, we added speakers and a soundtrack to enhance the experience further. we looped a brief explaination of the project (in english and in the local maori dialect) to draw in the public and help them understand the display. we kept this short as we felt the length of time most people would stop would be fairly short. we wanted to make it immediately inviting, add to the visuals (as any decent AV display should) with sloshing sounds etc, and make it clear for the viewer.

we added a square rigger mast and sail as a support frame and backing for our screen. the rigging shape echoed that of ships from the 1800’s..
as we constructed this structure it became apparent that the shape we had chosen has certain religious significance (the cross) too. we decided to embrace this as it could enhance the idea of ‘walking on water’. ultimately, we decided the small lcd screen had to go, as it interrupted the overall aesthetic of the boat/screen and was not big enough to dominate the audiences focus.

below is a demo video showing the screen output that was played on the small lcd screen initially, then projected directly onto the sheet after some refinements and tinkering;

projecting straight onto the sheet gives the whole display cohesion and seems like a much more natural way to portray our concept;

the choice to project straight onto the sail solved our screen problems. plus, viewing the video outcome at night, on cloudy days or in dark rooms gives a sense of a ghostly presence which adds to the nostalgic feel.

finding footage - reimagining old freemans bay

first takes

initally we shot some 'old freemans bay' footage from locations close to the auckland viaduct.
we chose bays that we thought would have similar landscapes and characteristics of our screen/ concept location;

elements we saw in pre-1840's images include;

parcially embanked shelly beaches, a shoreline that tapers up to a parallel ridge, some grass by the water, a crescent shaped bay, vegetation, no obvious modern intrusions upon the landscape (like houses etc) and a lapping shore.

as we shot test footage we realised that there were too many modern features present in the contempory visual landscape around freemans bay and downtown auckland so we set about finding a setting to use as our reimagined version...

we realised that many islands in the hauraki gulf have similar shorelines, immediate ridges and shelly, embanked beaches. ... so we sailed off to scour the seaside for options...

islington bay

we found an excellent location at the end of islington bay to do our shooting. we nosed in as close as we could, to capture a decent scene but found that even on this calm day we would find too much rocking.

we decided to have a stationary vantage point for our shooting because we thought the wobbling of the camera would distract the audience and break continuity of our narative. ie if the scene is moving the window it is viewed through should too.

this is an issue that we could resolve with some servo's and well timed camera rocking (with the waves). this would be fun to add to the overall boat presentation structure but will not be feasible this time. $$$

we decided to go ashore to get a better shot...

we spent the whole day trudging around finding the best scene and angle. this was an arduous task but we managed to get lots of viable footage.

below is a short montage of the day - test shots, working video and scenic stuff;

we set up an independant blog showcasing some of the relevant history of the freemans bay. the link is;
http://projectwalkingonwater.blogspot.com/

WALKING ON WATER - DOWNTOWN RETROSPECTIVE

problem

many aucklanders seem to be oblivious to the rich history of our city. we would like to introduce the public to this narrative in an interactive, new way.

concept

for this project we have decided to create an interactive screen which showcases the history of our surrounding area of auckland city.

after some research we chose the freemans bay/viaduct/victoria park market area. this location has had an interesting, sordid past, with many acres of land reclaimed from the ocean , beginning in the 1840's.

this survey map from 1841 shows the plans to reclaim all of freemans bay, the tank farm, the viaduct and downtown auckland. i was amazed at how accurately this resembles what is there today, 170 years later;

originally taken from googlemaps.com, 2009

we are going to use a screen in some way to present a new slant on the geographic history of the auckland waterfront.

the screen and display must be aesthetically and contextually relevant to the setting we choose. also, it should be inviting, easy to use and be obvious enough so as not to confuse the viewers.

microfilm and archive research - background

we visited the auckland library, searching through old newspapers, articles and microfilm archives.

we found old photographs and drawings that provide visual insight into the metamorphosis of this area;

1840's...

...1904...

...1938...

...today.

these images suggest that freemans bay had a round, shelly shoreline that tapered up towards the ridge which is now known as ponsonby.

the bay was filled in as it was deemed by early surveyors to be an excellent location for a harbour - with its long, deep, easily defendable channel.

before european occupation local maori of tamaki makau rau used the area to gather sea food such as cockles and were obviously already wise to the potential and importance of this area. the original names for the bay and beach that are now victoria park, were waiatarau (or 'reflecting waters) and wai kōtota ('the place where the cockles are harvested');

during the first half of the 1900's this area of freemans bays' reclaimed, flat basin became an empoverished and notorious slum village. this is not surprising as the european settlers named freemans bay after captain hobson's secretary, James Stuart Freeman, who was famously described as "the most disgustingly immoral swindling scoundrel in town".

ad for contentious redevelopment launch in freemans bay. ICN 1978-1980

altogether, a rather colourful chronicle is that of freemans bay...

exploring the physical environment and contextual links

we spent many hours walking around the whole expanse of reclaimed land in downtown auckland and found the topography is still very suggestive of the original shape and layout of the bay.

we were searching for a location to display our screen which would help us establish a physical, contextual link to this history...

our original idea developed from our first walk around. we proposed setting up an interactive, history kiosk with reimagined images of the area immediately around it. we were going to make a cowling that physically and aesthetically reflected elements we saw during the research thus far. e.g. a kiosk placed near, and made to resemble, victoria park markets red brick construction.

we noticed many historical features still remain in this area and chose to display somewhere in the victoria park region. however, we wanted to make more of an original comment about the fact that victoria parks surroundings used to be occupied by the ocean/waitemata harbour and that we have changed the landscape so drastically to serve our purpose.

concept development

we proposed to create a stand-alone kiosk (displaying as stated above). a screen set into a transparent plastic tank with fish. this was proposed as a comment on the land reclaim, by imposing a body of water on land that used to be sea.

after much deliberation we decided the idea to make a stand-alone kiosk would not be feasible because materials such as tansparent acrylic are entirely too expensive for our budget, an internal power source would be tricky to create, and there are too many safety issues involved with mixing water and electricity.

also, we made the choice to persue a display which involved passive interaction of passers by and not a suggestively housed information box/screen, which still focussed on the land reclaim.

our concept thus far was undeveloped if not cool and aesthetic. we set about to find something more....

CHEESE EDIT

this is my project outcome for DATA STRUCTURES & JAVA. i have created a simple, fun, cheesey picture editor. Add comic eyes that stare at the position of the mouse on screen, give friends a cheesey message bubble, or see what you might look like on TV.
instructions are included but it is fairly self explanitory i think.


this application was made using NetBeans IDE and is saved as a .jar file. try it for yourself - you should be able to download it straight to your desktop from the link below;

CHEESE%20EDIT%20PS1.1.jar

Also, if you want the JAVA code to look at just send me a comment/message with your email and i'll send it to you.


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MICROFILM AND ARCHIVE RESEARCH

our trip to the auckland library turned out to be quite fruitful. we searched through achived newspapers, microfilm reels and many other publications, selecting many images of freemans bay and its recorded history.
these are a few of the images we selected to help give us an idea of the landscape and changes of freemans bay over the course of the last two centuries;

misc- 1840's-colours enhanced to show historical land boundary-

misc- 1840's

ICN - 1901

PUBLIC SCREEN RESEARCH

http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol6_No2_interactive_city_struppek.htm;

Urban Screens – The Urbane Potential of Public Screens for Interaction

"Within a time frame of about ten years, experimental (interactive) media installations and performances have gained recognition as new art forms in public space. Artworks explore the interconnectedness of public space, interaction, and new media. Urban Screens investigates how the growing infrastructure of dynamic digital displays in urban space, currently dominated by commercial forces, can be utilized in this context and broadened with cultural content. The research project wants to network and sensitize engaged parties for possibilities of using the digital infrastructure for contributing to a lively urban society. The integration of current information technologies supports the development of a new digital layer of the city in a fusion of material and immaterial space, redefining the function of this growing infrastructure. Interactivity and participation will bind the screens to the communal context of the space and thereby create local identity and engagement." Mirjam Struppek