After deciding that I didn’t need ethics, this reduced the workload greatly and allowed me to focus on other aspects of the project.
I had a one to one session with guest lecturer Alessandra Saviotti, to discuss my progress. When hearing about my experimentations with AR filters, she gave me some further insight into how I could advance this further in order to provide more interactivity. She showed me an example of an infographic to educate people on COVID 19 and the effectiveness of wearing masks. The ability to zoom into the individual wearing a mask and to view the bacteria molecules, was a fascinating way to engage audiences by allowing them to inspect and zoom in. This did seem an interesting way that I could extend my AR filters, however it would be quite time consuming and involve experts in AR and VR.
Screenshot of animation by New York Times 'Masks Work. Really. We'll Show You How'
After having these one-to-one sessions, me and Katie arranged a meeting with each other to discuss these sessions. Based on Katie’s session, she came up with an idea of having the virtual exhibition based in a hospital environment. I found this to be quite a fascinating idea, and creates this immersive feel, as though the viewer was inside a hospital corridor viewing the artworks. I really liked the way it broke out of the traditional white cube space, and almost inferring hospitals as a form of white cube, due to the clinical and seemingly pure nature.
My original idea was to have the exhibition within the inside of a brain, however, this initial idea seemed more complex. There became issues in creating a space in the shape of a brain, and then featuring the inner tissue and blood vessels would maybe overwhelm my pieces. Despite the seemingly immersive aspect, I eventually felt that it would deter the attention away from the artworks themselves. For this reason, a hospital landscape seemed the best compromise.
After beginning to design this hospital landscape for the virtual exhibition, I arranged a meeting with Plastic Surgeon Partha Vauide, to discuss my artworks further.
He provided me with some key concepts and ideas that I could develop further within my practice. As an enthusiast of aquarium plants, Partha suggested an idea to house my plant (Bacopa Monnieri) within an aquarium tank, and also situate my brain model also. He showed me a recent purchase of a BiOrb, which is an aquarium tank in the shape of an oval.
BiOrb photograph taken from Alleideen
I found the shape of the tank to be really effective, when housing the plant and brain sculpture. I found it was quite reminiscent of a bell jar and how organs are often contained in fluid within these bell jars as a form of preservation. When looking at the cost of these BiOrb’s, I found them to be quite expensive, and it made me question whether using an actualy bell jar would be cheaper and more effective in echoing towards organ preservation. When looking online, I found using terrariums or glass food storage containers looked similar to these BiOrbs but were half the price! I found this could very promising for housing by plant and brain sculpture.
Brown-John. (2009) Bell Jar. Accessed from Flickr
One thing to consider is how would I make the sculpture float in the water? Maybe making it hollow, would make it lighter and even cheaper to create.
Partha went on to suggest that this installation could highlight the development of the brain tumour through the growth of the plant. By having three different containers with three different brains, in could illustrate the growth at different stages. Despite how impactful this may be, I did find that this could become quite expensive, and I found that through time as the plant growths, it would naturally illustrate the growth gradually.
I particularly found these discussions to be really key in my development. Not only did this indicate really fascinating ideas, but it also taught me about what ideas I did not like and why.