Nicholas McLaughlin Blog

Open share is a chance to revisit a project at the end of the year and display it during an exhibition for years 1-3.

Day 01

Initially, I wanted to revisit my sensory objects project and refine the book with smaller components and conductive paint instead of the tape and just an overall design refining. But due to time constraints, I didn’t have enough time to order the components. I should have ordered them beforehand, but I was too focused on the previous project, Creative Coding 02.

As this project is only three days long, I changed from my Sensory object redesign to my Projection Mapping project as it was something I enjoyed, and I felt that I already had some idea of where I wanted to take it.

Initially my thoughts on the projection mapping second iteration where to bring back the plinths, get higher quality images or moving images and then present it in the garage space.

My first snag in that was the lack of plinths as they where already in use for the 3rd years projects and now still in use for the open share projects. So in my frantic mind as I walked into the studio I seen Saoirse’s old chair.

N – “Can I borrow this?

S – “Yeah sure”

N – “Can I paint it?”

S – “No”

N – “Sh*t”

So with a chair and no way to paint it, I took Nikki’s suggestion and got some white tape; after a quick trip to the Savoy, I got a couple of roles of white tape and started to cover the parts of the chair I needed.

After a test and seeing that the projector’s colours were bright enough, I started taping the rest.

Day 02

After more tape and with the chair now white, the next step was to sort out placement and mapping, which took longer than I had anticipated. And at this moment, I’ve realised that there’s a dead space from the position of the projector behind one of the armrests and for there not to be the projector has to be much higher and probably use one of the plinths I do not have or mounting the projector is some crazy location which seems a bit dramatic and a bit late in the game on day two of three.

For the end of day 03 I have to

• Polish the mapping for the chair.
• Pick the images/footage that will be mapped onto the chair.
• Finalise and print the description.

Note: Do I want the mapping to be perfect? Should I lean into the imperfection… the tape isn’t perfect, and the walls and chair aren’t perfect; why should the mapping be?

The images must be perfect, though; they must be crisp, clean and clear.

Day 03

I had a weird feeling about my progress at this point today because I felt that I had done a lot and there was still a lot more to do but when I looked at any task list I set for myself it didn’t seem like a lot.

(Edit: This must have been my Spidey senses or something kicking in because it got too close to the wire. )

When remapping the chair today, I decided not to worry too much about the perfect lines of the mapper because it felt too different from the overall theme and style of the work. I feel that the rough and ready style communicates the main aim of what I’m trying to say.

I did get a decent animation of a Union Jack for the projection but I had trouble getting decent images or footage of any negative images for the other side of the chair. (Thats probably an interesting subject to look into on a further date if its not just my poor Googling skills. Why is so difficult to find footage or images of certain topics.)

When thinking about the description of my work, I realised how much I was torn between describing it in a very logical, technical way or a very emotional, conceptual way. I found myself pulling away from talking about it more artistically, probably brought on by some doubt or some version of imposter syndrome, but thankfully, inspired by the theme of what I was writing about, I went for the uncomfortable option that was better suited.

Uncomfortable 

Only by seeing the whole picture can we deal with the problem. 

The world’s governing bodies have several hardships to answer for, yet people may defend these flags and these governments with undying loyalty or wish to detach these horrible crimes from those that are the cause. The problems we face in modern times are not mysteries, and they are not myths; they are tangible, traceable, and part of our lives and homes. These problems are hard to see, but they won’t disappear if we ignore them.

We can only begin to tackle the uncomfortable truth by seeing the whole picture.

Projector, Touch Designer, chair, White Tape

Day 04 – Exhibition Day

Exhibition day was very up and down on terms of stress levels and a lot of me wishing I had just simplified my submission and got out of my own head.

In first thing and setting everything up, when I look back it now a lot of the morning off was taken up by Touch Designer not playing along. And thankfully Gillian was there to help and put up with my growing stressing the closer and closer it got to the deadline.

Long repetitive story short, Touch Designer was working with the laptop open and in certain settings but didn’t want to work when the laptop was closed. But I had something to present and after remapping it a couple of times I got quite fast with it.

The key points of today were the little things that would come to me in jolts of panic and inspiration. Once the projection was set up and everything was how I wanted it to be, Stewart, in year 3, provided an idea by interacting with the pictures of the wall of King Charles and Rishi Sunak, and that gave me the idea for people to take it upon themselves and draw on the objects. Take a marker and draw on the chairs and the canvases however they wanted and say whatever they want.

Another last minute thing that people also commented on was the imitation of frames round the canvases using tape which again was a last minute thing that I added because I felt that it was missing something.

I would love to say that this entire exhibition was planned and well thought out but in all honesty it was me running down a path and making snap decisions when it came to a fork in the road and thankfully it paying off.

The change from projectors to chair was because everyone already had been using the plinths. The tape on the chair was because I could not paint on the chair. The interactive element was because Stewart felt moved to do something and I had a marker in my pocket. The frames round the canvases because I felt it was missing something and thankfully someone had left thin black tape in the Garage.

https://videopress.com/v/wZHjodDD?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&autoPlay=true&loop=true&muted=true&persistVolume=false&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

https://videopress.com/v/nGWhfdba?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&autoPlay=true&loop=true&muted=true&persistVolume=false&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

https://videopress.com/v/BIIYoq1Y?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&autoPlay=true&loop=true&muted=true&persistVolume=false&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Evaluation

I was proud of my work and I didn’t think I would be. This experience was rushed, stressful, and manic and I loved it. I don’t know why but it felt more like what it should be. Working together with your colleges and lecturers; making decisions on your work and how the work changes and develops. And then displaying it for people to see and interact with it. The feedback and interaction from others was great.

I’d love to do more exhibitions, display my work proudly, and get that feedback, whether it’s positive or not.

A personal note for next time and for my work in general is not to forget my love photography and use that in my documentation. A decent camera, interesting shots and properly lit.

At the end

Below is the documentation of what people decided to write on the chair.