progress... of sorts

I have been having a bit more trouble with this that I thought I would, trying to nail down what I am actually trying to achieve has been a bit tough but I have made inroads.. In honesty it is about engagement, a fun way to have people engage with the image viewing process rather than pasively walking by a load of pictures on a wall so I am currently back to the cog and machinery idea, I would like to build a picture frame that is cog driven but the cogs themselves are frames for the images on transparancies, if that makes sense... I am starting a maquette.

So the idea here is that I want there to be a series of cogs and each of the four semi circle segments will contain the images and a light will be mounted onto the corner of the frame and will project images onto the wall as the viewer turns the handle, a very basic way of participating. Sort of a tweak on the viewmaster idea. I will have to see if it works in tests and hopefully i will be able to make it up on the laser cutter for the final piece.
This is just one of the pieces I want to have.





So today I saw this wonderful contraption at MMU Art School and I remember when they were making the cogs on the open day I went to, brilliant to see it built.

Here's what it is all about.
Gives me more food for though on the sorts of devices that I can possibly build.

I would love to have the time to put together something along these lines...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stwhXgoJfAk

I think it is a way off for me yet though, certainly in terms of the engineering aspect but wow, fascinating work.
April 7th

Did I say installation, what I meant to say was.....

...Contraption! on a slightly smaller and much more maneagable scale. I threw around a load of ideas but the central concept is the same, it is based on awareness of surroundings and living in the moment, better living through gadgetry and something that bridges the worlds of technology and old school.
I want to create something that, like a photo booth but for viewing not making images, you must operate or power it yourself in order to see the images. No passive photos of my holidays here, no falling asleep in the slideshow, you the viewer will be fully engaged and I dare say utterly fascinated the entire time.
Although that being said it is still for me quite difficult to nail down what it is that I am actually thinking. I want to adress the disconnect in people and and each other, their surroundings and reality through a work that does not let you passivley observe. The rest, well... that's just mad scientist territory!
It should incorporate old and new technology, from a hand crank to qr code... I want to go through the lot.
I have started looking at work by Edward Muybridge and of course, Marchel Duchamp's Anemic cinema is a good place to start.
I want to modify viewmasters ( because I love them and they have so much potential),

 look at incorporating tech in a mannequin, building a pedal powered film viewer and really see what can be done with this very mad idea.
so I found an old broken viewmaster and thought I would play around with some plaster moulds to see what I could do with them, trouble is I forgot to put the tubes in for the eye holes.... well... they will still get used!

then I got given this little version so I thought I should take it apart to see how it works, maybe replicate it..

A very simple mechanism so I should not have too much trouble replicating it.