Whilst not having spent the last 6 weeks entirely dedicated to this project I have however made some considerable progress and changes. I will pepper this post with images whilst attempting to bring things up to speed.
I managed a site visit to Folkestone to see the space for the show and met with one of the lovely organisers. We had a chat about timings, installations, take down and available resources, projectors, monitors etc... I found the visit invaluable and it has shaped my decisions there after.
I spent more time researching Zeppelines and the King Stephen incident as well as more time putting together the technology that will relay the sounds from the Light house via the parabolic mic connected to the mobile phone.
I have been in contact with Andrew Gibson the YWT warden to arrange my site visit on the 4th July to set up the equipment. Andrew requested I put the YWT logo on all supporting material (as per usual) and blogs. Once finished at Spurn I will return to London and then on to Folkestone to do the install on the 5th, ready for the 6th.
Ive spent the last week in the studio building the recording platform to hold and house the equipment and running sound tests.
I decided upon a final sculptural/ installation idea to convey some of the sounds and ideas behind the project. Using the messages in bottles (found by fisherman in their nets describing the King Stephen incident and the LZ 19 final hours by its crew) idea I have wired up some old furniture from the light house using cheap head phone speakers and small usb/ mp3 devices to make the sound recordings play from inside a collection of found bottles. There are some things I still need to collect from Spurn to make this complete but I do not see their being a problem. I will just need to do a little beach combing around the lighthouse for some crab pots lost and washed up. In my experience there are usually half a dozen lying along the front at any point.
Using some old picture frames from Fullers brewery that were left over from shows at Tate Modern and Milton Keynes Gallery I have printed off some historical images of the Point and the lighthouse as well as news images of the LZ19 incident from home and abroad.
I also have a short film of a ship sailing slowly and very closely by the end of the point on a beautiful summers day (to the sound of Matt Monroe). I may yet use this. Possibly on a screen but also maybe in the window using some kind of two way screen/ cotton sheet? I need to work this out however. I like the idea of the window space looking as though its looking out at the ship passing by.... decisions decisions.
I decided to relay the sounds of the lighthouse into the gallery using an old stereo left in the studio by some previous residency artists who were here making there own boats before sailing off down the Lee Navigation. I dismantled one of the speakers and used the magnetic plate to attach it to the metal parabolic (wok) device. I will mount this back onto the tripod and connect the mobile phone via a audio jack into the stereo. Sounds captured into one dish and projected from another 180 miles away.
I suppose my goal is to create a small installation that looks and sounds (in some small part) like the inside of the lighthouse as it was when it was in use. Without spending a fortune and making the room round this is always going to be difficult but I think the different elements combined should prove to be at least esthetically interesting as well as the histories being intriguing to the viewer/ listener.
