Proposal for ‘Large Scale Assessment Piece’

Since my initial thoughts and discussions with Siân I have changed my mind completely.
The Brief: A large Scale Site Specific item.
Proposed Site: Budleigh Salterton Beach – various possible locations.
Item: ‘How can you make sound visible’? A pop-up installation.
Proposed Materials: Mixed Media: cassette tape, other synthetic materials and metal.
Size: At least 1 fathom long (a play on words).
My initial site visit was unfortunately on a somewhat dull morning.

Budleigh is a small town on the East Devon coast , it is South facing and is renowned for its amazing pebbles. It is a fishing village and is also home to a naturist beach!





There are also some beautifully coloured beach huts
   I spent quite a while taking photographs to get ideas and locate areas where a pop-up could go.



So my initial ideas are to make a textile piece that could be placed almost anywhere on the beach using ‘sound graffiti’ so the breeze would ‘take’ the words out to sea. Using my theme of graffiti I have been exploring the idea of taking sound out of context and placing it somewhere else. Like Tibetan prayer flags.
I then thought further and what better way to let the ‘words’ flow than on a seaside windmill, and echoing the images seen on the beach produce something that has many repetitions and has a long linear form.
I bought a windmill and went home
My plan is to take random recordings on cassette tape and use this tape to make windmills, each one with a different sound but all connected.




I  made some samples by taking tape and laying it out on a piece of Lutrador.






then laying garden fleece over and tissue under. the whole was the stitched together to create a ‘piece’. a wire structure the shape of a windmill template was then stitched over and a heat spatula used to cut it out and apply a few holes through the base where there was no tape.
The piece was then formed into a windmill. I am still at the stage of suggesting how to form them into a whole. the suggestion i have come up with at the moment is to make Perspex pebbles linked together to which the windmills will be attached. possibly using photographs of pebbles and or found items from the beach.


   Or to place them on a ‘beach blanket’ of seaweed like the sample (left). this was made from garden fleece and lutrador with repetitive words stitched through the layers and holes made with a heated spatula. spray paint was used to give a swirling stripe to the piece.





The finished piece would be placed in various locations throughout one day. Draped on the beach, bunting for a beach hut etc.

I have not worked out a cost for the piece yet as this will depend on my final materials.

Technorati Tags: Sound graffiti,cassette tape sound,Budleigh Salterton

As you can see someone got there before me!