Installation: Walls, Sculpture, the List Goes On

I don't remember going home on Wednesday and Thursday night. All I remember is that I hung yards and yards of "camo" cloth.

I do know I must have gone home because I remember putting my key in my door and thinking, "Do I still smell paint?".

We were building walls in earnest.

We used lumber left over from wood shop class, and Ross sketched out how he planned to frame the space. We needed two walls: one for an entrance and the other for an exit. Both need to be 36" away from the steel wall to accommodate anyone with mobility issues.

We extended the portable walls to overlap the steel wall so that people can enter the exhibit without ambient light entering as well.
After the frames were built, they were levelled and hung.

We used a particle board facing (again, recycled from wood shop), and all of the exposed wood was painted black.

As soon as the space was reasonably defined, we began assembling the "fake" data collectors and hoisting them to the ceiling.

Over in another part of campus -- actually, where the actual data collection equipment is installed, workers are in the process of replacing the roofing. This has necessitated the temporary relocation of the WALTA data collection equipment, making it opportune for it to be installed here in the gallery.

Note: credit for this photo of us lifting the brain into place goes to Ross Brown.

Kevin brought over the "brain" and we began the process of attaching it to the server rack and getting it powered up and working. Then while Kevin was going through the operations manual for the brain, the rest of us were working on our sculptures.

Four days into the installation, we had our first real chance to see what they looked like.

Throughout the entire project, we've had requests for photos and descriptions of what we're working on. In the grant proposal, for example, a request was made for a specific map of the project and how it worked.

This shows one difference between and art installation and a scientific one: we collectively had an idea of what we were doing, but the overall assemblage could not even be described. Nor could we provide photos, because we hadn't developed our pieces yet.

I find it refreshing that artists and their supporters can have such faith in the inspiration for the piece, while scientists need to be shown the beef (so to speak).


Personally, I got a lot of exercise climbing up and down a ladder.