Harrogate hospital

We have just heard that the Harrogate Macmillan Hospital has won the Best Interior Award at the Annual Building Better Healthcare awards. 

Here is a picture of a real time responsive film where a gardener (thanks to Jonathan Hale) emerges from his allotment shed and undertakes various positive and caring actives such as cleaning potatoes etc. The background stays the same and when someone walks along the corridor their movement activates the random selection of the gardener. 

The two images on the glass on the left hand side of the picture are two (of a series) of animated glass panels.

Thanks to Macmillan, Nightingale architects, Jonathan Hale, Willis Newson and Proto Studios.

burnley launch artistic lighting

Here are some more photos that Burnley Borough Council (Andy Ford) took from this weeks launch of the Weavers Triangle project.
Massive thank you to all involved.

Burnley launch artistic lighting

The launch for the new artistic lighting in Burnley took place last night in front a very sizeable crowd. The project has been supported by Prince Charles and there were a number of speeches followed by a firework display that preceded the turning on of the artistic lights via a large red button. Here Burnley Borough Council Chief Executive Pam Smith says 'Burnley's powerhouse past hits its powerhouse future...........'

Burnley lights

Last night Duncan Turner and I tweaked the projected lights at the Weavers Triangle, Burnley in preparation for Wednesdays launch. Deepest thanks to Duncan and Nayan for making it happen.

A series of gobos create the still images. The first chimney has an image inspired by the carved wooden blocks used at this Mill to print patterns on the cotton produced here. The second chimney has three images which fade from one to another. An animated image of a shuttle moving up and down the chimney, an engineers drawing of the dobby loom used in this Mill (and also shown in the 3d animated zoetrope previously shown on this blog) and a punch card inspired image. 

The two projectors for the interactive films are triggered by 4 PIR's which cover the canal side towpath, the bridge onto the new public square and the front of the square. As people move into these zones they activate one or both of the projectors. A still image remains until activated.

The two halves of the projection work independently but the imagery links to form two halves of one image. The chimneys in the film come to life and various activities occur which relate to the sites cotton industry and appear like the buildings memories. The chap in the image is Mr Slater (the films are projected onto Slater Terrace) and he built the Mill. There are 50 video clips which last 40 seconds each and are selected randomly when people enter the square or walk along the canal path

The pieces are permanent and come on automatically at sunset. The chimney lights remain on until 1am and the interactive films remain on until 11pm.

These images are snaps from last night and Andrew Hilton will be coming to site and photograph the light works properly. He also has a drone and will make a short film. I'll upload these in the near future.

Wakefield feature wall

The sculptural feature wall that has recently been made and installed outside Kirkgate Railway Station was rendered by Mark Scholfield for Parex and is now being used as a case study for their product.

Interactive walls

Since designing digitally interactive walls in my immersive virtual reality artworks during my NESTA Fellowship a decade ago, I have wanted to make physically responsive walls/environments. I have wanted to bring back the physicality that is tricky to achieve with digital platforms whilst retaining the wonders of the digital opportunity and programming.


I have been making interactive samples to show the principles. I am currently collaborating with DLA architects (John Orrell), Stage One (Tim Leigh) and Matt Little on making two 4m high interactive tiled pieces with words that appear and become abstract in response to the public's movement for Central Square in Leeds. 

Short films of the samples can be seen here:

http://www.jofairfaxstudio.com/projects/interactive_walls

Thanks to NESTA, Matt Little and Marcus Rowlands.

Wakefield

I was asked by Beam on behalf of Wakefield Council to produce a piece that leads people to the entrance of the refurbished Kirkgate Railway Station, Wakefield. A wall was required to separate the public realm with the small park behind. This is the railway station that people use to visit the Hepworth Museum and of course Barabara Hepworth was born in Wakefield. 

The perforations act as a way of connecting the park and public realm whilst also referencing Hepworths sculpturally significant penetration of her forms.

A quote by Wakefield novelist George Gissing is inlaid the surface of the wall using the same technique that is used at the Hepworth Museum. The quote reads: It is the mind which creates the world around us.

6 uplighters are still due to be installed. I'll upload new photographs when that part of the installation is complete.

Many thanks to Fran Smtih, Kate Watson, Beam, Wakefield Council, Seb Boyesen, Simon Wilkins, Mark Scholfield, Waldemar Kripp, Sarah Leeson, Groundwork and Parex.

Leeds Central Sq

I have been working on some artworks with John Orrell and Tim Leigh for the new Central Square building in Leeds. The site is the old railway station where the Mallard set off on its record breaking speed steam locomotive journey and the interactive lighting piece references this in its programme of lighting and form. The piece is made of linear programmable lines of LED's 26 meters high. 

Yesterday the project was on the front cover of the Financial Times.

Many thanks to John Orrell and the DLA team and also to Tim Leigh and Stage One.

This is a model of the form. Larger light samples are currently being made. The black blob at the base is a person to indicate scale.

Deceased Paul

This is a tribute to Paul the predicting octopus who passed away. Paul the octopus predicted the scores of football matches during the World Cup. I wanted to keep this fine tradition alive by making an automata as a tribute to him whilst continuing my exploration into harnessing the power in a pot of tea.

Follow the link below to see a film of 'Deceased Paul' predicting the score between England and Germany.

http://www.jofairfaxstudio.com/projects/Automata/Deceased_Paul

Burnley lighting

The new lighting pieces are starting to be set up in Burnley. Illuminating two magnificent chimneys on the new public square. 

Here are some images from the latest evenings installation this week.

Animated images of a shuttle work their way up the west side of a chimney and then fade to reveal on the southerly side an engineers drawing of a cross section of the loom used in the Weavers Triangle factories. This fades to reveal a rhythmic punch card pattern on the east side.

A separate image on the second chimney to the rear of the square shows a repeat woodblock pattern similar to ones used locally on the cotton produced on site when the cotton industry was at its peak in Burnley.

Massive thanks To Duncan Turner and Nayan for their tireless work.

Thanks also to Burnley Council, to Cecilia Whittaker, Helen Jones, Adam Lockett and James Moran-Zietek.