Artwork Analysis

Light Art Installation 2010

Artist: Sonia Falcone
Medium: Slender blocks, mirrors, 3D color projection
Size: Unknown

A video installation and consists combinations using a dark background and light projecting onto blocks to
create a colorful and vibrant presentation.

This combination of colors on a dark background would make more of an impact on the audience also it would
make them feel that they are in a calm and peaceful environment, inducing feelings of hope and happiness
in the viewers. This installation was also set up so that it could be seen by different perspectives. This allowed
viewers to see different colors and feel different emotions depending on where they were.

It was made out of thin, vertical blocks that were spread around six meters and aligned in an uneven manner. On
the blocks, she projected video made of short and colorful components that were each representing one part of
her personal life. She mixed artificial and natural scenery to stress out the unity and importance of both in
human existence, and the message she wanted to send is that living is beautiful, from the moment of
conception throughout everything man does and feels in his lifetime. Her mission was to send hope and to signify
that there is promise for the better future.

Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991

Artist: Cornelia Parker
Medium: Wood, metal, plastic, ceramic, paper, textile and wire
Dimensions: 4000 x 5000 x 5000 mm

Composed of the ragged fragments of a garden shed, which was blown up by the British Army for the
artist Cornelia Parker
All kinds of connections and ideas can be traced through the arrangement of different objects. These
familiar domestic items were transformed by the explosion. In their damaged state, they can be seen as
symbols of transience and fragility.
I operate very often in these 'frozen moments' where there's been lots of action but this a sort of quiet
corner of that.
Shadows on the floor and on the wall, are as much part of the work as the suspended objects. The real and the
immaterial mingle and merge, turning the whole gallery space into a sculptural environment.

As installation art heavily depends on the environment, we have chosen both artworks to help us consider the
effects of the use of the environment. Cornelia Parkers installation artwork influences us through the interesting
use of space, as shadows are used as a powerful effect for symbolism. Sonia Falcones installation artworks
sense of perspective influences us to consider the impacts of different perspectives can affect perception. These
2 aspects can be used in our artwork by using shadow and light to represent time and through different
perspectives for the effects of blue light. Through the advantage of using light, the artwork can reflect on the
biological time from reality, which can give a familiar sense of reality to strengthen the impression of the artwork.
While the use of perspectives can be appeal to personal experience.

Bibliography:
1. "Sonia Falcone Light Art Installation." Sparkythepikachu. N.p., 28 June 2012. Web. 12 June 2017.
<https://sparkythepikachu.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/sonia-falcone-light-art-installation/>.
2. Widewalls. "Sonia Falcone." WideWalls. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2017.
<http://www.widewalls.ch/artist/sonia-falcone/>.
3. "About Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View." Tate. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2017.
<http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/cold-dark-matter/introduction>.
4. "Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) - Front Row, Kim Cattrall on Stage. Cornelia Parker. Brian
Aldiss. Gwyneth Lewis - Cornelia Parker: Images from Her Book & Exhibition." BBC Radio 4. BBC, n.d.
Web. 12 June 2017. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bczkn/p01bcxt3>.

Prototype:
Materials:
Cellophane Paper
Styrofoam
White Paint
Double-sided Tape
Semi-Transparent White Paper
White Glue
Strings/Wires

Design Drafts:

Contextual Research:
From the data acquired above, it can be concluded that secondary students in VSA on average gets 7-8 hours of
sleep on normal school days, followed by a large number of students getting 5-6 hours of sleep each night,
reflecting the insufficient sleep phenomenon in students school lives. It is also evident that VSA students often
find themselves sacrificing sleep for socializing, which is also a common issue that can be applied to everyone
around the globe.

We have also asked around 20 students around the school and the majority said that they spend over 3 hours on
their phone each day, and most of them feel like theyre addicted to their phones and even encountered some
sort of sleep problems such as unable to fall asleep (or insomnia) with smartphones as a source of disruption.
From this, we can see that this phone addiction issue is quite serious in our daily lives and is interconnected with
sleep, therefore contributes greatly in our overall health, making it indispensable for us to present and raise
awareness of this issue.

What is sleep deprivation?

Blue lights causes sleep deprivation, which is the condition where one suffers and lacks from sleep.
When someone is in a chronic sleep-restricted state theyll notice excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue,
clumsiness, and weight gain or weight loss. In addition, being sleep-deprived affects both the brain and cognitive
function. Interestingly, theres a subset of cases whereby sleep deprivation can actually lead to an enhanced
mood, alertness, and increased energy.

What are the side effects of sleep deprivation?

Excessive daytime sleepiness
Accidents from lack of attention
Moodiness
Hunger
Other health dangers listed below

How does phone addiction affect our health?

Since the phone can access the Internet at any time, users rely more and more serious dependence on
electronic products, all kinds of excessive use of the Internet, causing normal work and rest, can be regarded as
Internet addiction.

Users use the Internet more and more time and money, and even affect their studies, work and other daily social,
but also to family members, teachers or friends to hide the situation. In addition to the Internet, do not work on
other things, try to reduce the Internet time, but unsuccessful. The situation is serious, into a hidden youth, prefer
to stay in the virtual world and do not want to live in real society.

Phone Addiction problem in HK

Which visited 3,500 people, more than two teenagers over the "Phone Addiction" situation, they include the
following characteristics:
1) hang up the Internet longer than expected
2) still think of online content after offline
3) need to spend more time to meet the needs of the Internet
4) for the Internet would rather lose social, education or work
5) There is no self-control Internet behavior

Bibliography:
"Cell Phone Addiction." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 12 June 2017.
Chen, Heather. "Asia's Smartphone Addiction." BBC News. BBC, 07 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 June 2017.
Davis, Kathleen. "Sleep Deprivation: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment." Medical News Today. MediLexicon
International, n.d. Web. 12 June 2017.
"11 Signs You're Sleep Deprived." Health.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2017.
"Selena Gomez Went 90 Days Without Her Phone. Should You?" Smartphone Addiction. N.p., 24 May 2017. Web.
12 June 2017.
"Signs and Symptoms of Cell Phone Addiction." Cell Phone Addiction Signs and Symptoms. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June
2017.
"Sleep Deprivation - Symptoms, Causes, Dangers and Treatment." American Sleep Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 12
June 2017.
"Young People Unable to Control Smartphone Usage, Survey Finds." South China Morning Post. N.p., 02 Apr. 2017.
Web. 12 June 2017.

Size:
The size of our instillation artwork would be specifically in a size of a diameter of 130cm.

We wanted our instillation to be in this specific size because we do not want to create a crazy big instillation that
overwhelms the audience too much, but instead, we want it to be simple that touches peoples heart. Also due to
the limited time of making the instillation, we do not want to make it overly complicated to prevent rushing which
decreases the quality of our work.

Most importantly, we measured the diameter of the location that we wanted to place our instillation and it was
290cm. Weve decided to create an instillation that is about half the size of the location, because we believe that
this would be the most appropriate ratio for creating the best effect the attract our audiences attention.
Furthermore, we didn't want to use up the whole space but instead leaving some space between the pillars to
allow light to shine through and create a better effect.

Why we choose this location:

Most ppl eat lunch
Open area for natural sunlight to shine through artwork
The location is very conspicuous

Weve chosen to place our instillation at the 7F garden area becase of 3 main reasons.

Firstly, we believe that this area is one of the most populated area in the school. This area in the 7F is one of the
main place to have lunch and hanging out, often there is alot of students area that area and would benefit our
intention of creating this art in which is to reveal the phenomenon of teenagers neglecting sleep and alerting them
on how phone addiction has suppressed their regular sleeping habits.

Secondly, as our instillation requires natural sunlight to create a effect of light shining through the Cellophane
Papers to symbolise the blue light that mobile phone screens emits, therefore weve decided to choose this
area that is the best location to provide sufficient amount of sunlight.

Lastly, this location is one of the locations that us students visits the most almost every single day. The location
that were placing our instillation on is between the pillars in the front entrance of the 7F garden. We believe that
this location is one of the most conspicuous places at school as every single student that goes into the garden
must come across this location, therefore we believe that this location would be the most convenient location for
students to enjoy and look at our instillation.

Development Process:

Artistic Research
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our groups art instillation has been created based upon the central theme from artist Sonia Falcones Light Art
Installation. Also from gabrielle Ocampos art instillation What Its Like to Sleep. We were inspired to put great
detail into the pathways that the light would be shone through our art installation, from her creative use of the
sheet fabric that added an unique aspect to the art work. Sleep Pattern by Linda Simon used numerous ear
plugs within her piece, our group was able to relate this detail back to our themes of sleeping patterns, since ear
plugs can be associated as a common practice before sleep. Lastly, Laurie Fricks art instillation Bumpy World.
Main use of wood as the material in his art instillation, this allowed us to easy connect this aspect to nature,
further linking the art piece to our original idea to showcase the human biological clock.

Further, it has also been created based on the idea of our bodys biological clock. The theory of the biological
clock suggests that the hormone which regulates sleeping patterns, secretes starting from 9:00pm, up until
7:30am. In addition, this means that the blue light from the use of modern technological devices has a major
influence on our brains, by shifting our circadian rhythms by around a maximum of 3 hours. This is the reason
behind our intention of showing the blue light to be reflected from 12 oclock to 10 oclock, through the use of
clean blue plastic material.
 Moreover, the demonstration of blue light is reflected on the cellophane paper to represent a common
smartphone addiction amongst many. Our group has creatively combined aspects from our prior research, such
as the similar artistic technique and style of light usage, into our art instillation.

Repetition and pattern is an obvious aspect used within our art instillation, to showcase the irregular sleeping
pattern that is influenced onto our body because of the excessive use of modern technology devices. The nature
balanced scale from the main structure and body of the art instillations clock, tells a story of the ugly truth from
the utilization of modern technology devices all because of the blue lights that are being constantly emitted from
it.

Furthermore, the specific materials that our group has chosen to use in order to accommodate our creative piece
completely, includes recycled white plastic board, cotton, and last but not least cheap plastic sheets and semi-
transparent white paper. The audience will then be able to interact with it by noticing the most as well as a hard
texture that is contrasted between the large variety of materials.

Schedule:

Dates: Details:

6th March Brainstorm ideas, and decide the theme of our instillation

9th March Research, writing the artistic statement

13th March Find 3 significant artists/ artwork

16th March Design the installation

20th March Started the presentation

23th March Continue creating our presentation

27th March Continue creating our presentation

30th March Finish our presentation

4-14 April Collect all the materials needed

5-21 May Making the instillation

12 June Final check

PROJECT DUE

Final Reflection:

Overall we believe that weve did a pretty good job during this unit.
Looking back at the instillation that weve made, we think that our instillation overall the built quality was quite
good. The final product came out pretty similar to how our final design looked like, because weve built a smaller
scale prototype to help us determine the main construction elements and also how our instillation should look in-
order to match the location that we chose.

The appearance of our instillation looks pretty good. We think that the most successful part of our model is that
weve been able to really make use of the Cellophane Papers to create a effect of the blue light that mobile
phone emits while users are using, and to further present our intention of creating this product to our audience.
The Cellophane Papers really worked well under the natural sunlight, especially when we tested our final product
weve noticed the amazing effect of the Cellophane Paper changing the colour of the natural light and it really is
able to attract students to come and take a look at our instillation.

Theres a few main materials that weve chosen to use to make our instillation. Firstly, weve chosen to use
Styrofoam to build the main body parts of our instillation, because Styrofoam is very light and easy to allow us to
move the instillation from a location to another, but also its strong enough that it could hold a certain weight and
its able to hold the instillation a piece while hanging it in 7F. Secondly, weve chosen to use Cellophane Paper to
represent the idea of the emitting of blue light because the material itself is one of the most semi-transparent
paper that could allow light to shine through. Our artworks main feature is to present sleep deprivation through
this idea of blue light emitting, therefore we believe that Cellophane Paper not only allows light to shine through
easily, but also its the best and most efficient paper to change the colour of the natural sun light. Lastly, weve
chosen to use Semi-Transparent White Paper (similar to Rice Paper) is because this is the best paper to allow
light to shine through easily, but also at the same time easy to cut into our required shapes. As we wanted to
avoid leaving the remaining hours in the biological clock empty, weve decided to place on some thin white
coloured paper to cover the empty spaces, and weve decided to use this material at last.

If we had time to change the final work, we would spend more time on the process of planning and creating the
instillation, as we have noticed that our instillation was relatively smaller than what we have expected, with the
large area between the pillars on 7/F, the size of the instillation was a little underwhelming, which affected the
overall presentation and significantly decreased the influence it has on the target audience. Therefore, next time
we would ensure that correct measurements were taken and more planning has to be done with the actual
spacing around the installation as instillation art is all about the perception of a space.