Initial Concepts

After my initial diamond structured brainstorm, I have a collection of concepts using various different mediums and techniques, some boasting methods of interactivity and some using elements of lightings. I found that the large majority of my concepts were using a sculpture based design. I think this is due to the fact that I am usually placed within a graphic designer based concepts, while most students will normally create work themselves with their hands, I am normally restricted to a computer, so even the concept of creating something physical takes me out of my comfort zone.

I decided to push my late-night concept further, to begin with, creating a large number of sketches based around the behavior of those while perhaps, out in Cardiff on a Friday/Saturday nights or the mind frames of those people. I wanted to consider the use of time-based lighting for my art piece, perhaps something will come alive late at night, or the first rays of the sun will alight the work in a different way from that which it is viewed during the day, perhaps the piece will not illuminate much, so that once the sun fully rises, the slight illuminations will once again become invisible until the next day. This will allow those walking past my work around the times of 6am to view it in its full glory. This allows me to make the piece have multiple purposes and attitude, during the day when everyone will be able to see my work, I can make it look a certain way, however perhaps the luminescence will cast a slight shadow onto the ground, this will require further planning as I need to research the ways for a minimum amount of light to make the maximum amount of impact.

A concept within this theme could be to create a large dome-shaped sculpture with a solar charging lamp within the center of it, or Possibly a large number of mirrors in order to amplify and change the direction of any sunlight present in the surrounding area. The outside of the sculpture would be mainly hollow, with the only type left so that the light will flow from the inside of the sculpture and then display the type along the ground so that it is a large, legible shadow.

I think that the shape of the dome needs to be relevant to the message that is being displayed as well as the placement of the sculpture, I need it to be somewhere with a large amount of floor space surrounding the piece, as well as a large number of people during the day. If I am going to give the light effect more impact it seems necessary to have the piece light up during the night, so I will likely run this concept and make the text about my “Cardiff Night Life” idea.

It seems some common themes within all of my ideas are that they will take place along one of the large busy streets of Cardiff City Center. Because of this, I think that proceeding to capture photos of my space is my most effective way to move forward, further exploration of my space at different times of the day as well as different levels of people present within my chosen space. For instance, next Saturday on the 30th November there are multiple large scale events on within the city center, this would be a good time to take photos for Cardiff at its busiest, making it easier for me to tell where the majority of people go in Cardiff, what streets are most populated and where within those streets do the people naturally flow within the space. As well as a photoshoot during the night, where there are no people and the sunlight is absent from the city, this will allow me to potentially create digital mockups of the scale and position of my piece within the environment in which it should hopefully exist.