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Geelong After Dark:  Documentation of Major Project

THE BIG PICTURE:  IT'S ABOUT TIME! 

 

The brief:  Seeing Geelong in a New Light

Geelong After Dark is an annual event.  This was the second year.  The event happens over one evening, in spaces all over Central Geelong.  There are projections, performances, art exhibitions, demonstrations and interactive works both inside and outside. 

Deakin's contributrion in 2015 was for Navigating the Visual World students from the Waterfront Campus to present an exhibition of individual art works. 

The overarching theme of Geelong After Dark 2015 was'Light'.  The sub-theme for the Waterfront group was 'Seeing Geelong in a New Light'.  The brief was to make some sort of projection (gif or short movie).  Initially, the plan was for a large projection on the wall of the Deakin buildings.  However, this was not possible and the Project Space (ground floor, Sally Walker Building) was designated as the venue.  This was to be shared with some collaborative work from Newcombe High School and a sound activated light sculpture by Eben Greaves. 

 

My work:  It's About Time

My work is a response to both my interest in the maritime history of Geelong, and my love of the constantly changing light across Corio Bay throughout the day and night.  This led to a melding of time lapse photography with images of vessels which have used the bay from before European settlement to the modern day.  There are two time lapse works in the exhibition - a wide-angled view across Corio Bay to the east along the shipping channel, and a zoom view across the bay to the south across the city sky line.  Both films are made of still photographs taken at 30 second intervals over 16-20 hours, including a full night. 

You Tube versions of these timelapse sequences can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb0eZh-u0ik and https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=23&v=ocj36WfGQwQ. 

A secondary pair of works are two short slide shows depicting various colour changes of the city skyline.  The first depicts a night photo, with two variations produced in Photoshop, with multiple transition frames devised with a glitch generator.

 

 

 

 

The second is a daytime view of the cityscape across Corio Bay, manipulated in seven versions for colour, with each version produced in multiple images using Photoshop filters, adjustments and other Photoshop tools. 

 

Depictions of Corio Bay across time

I have not been able to find images from pre-European settlement though it is likely that the Wathurong people made images of their hunting and fishing activities in the area. 

Since early days, Port Philip and Corio Bay have been depicted in prints, drawings, paintings and photographs.  Historical events, including the life of William Buckley have also been recorded visually.  Geelong Art Gallery holds a historic selection of Geelong images - including several by Eugene Von Guerard and two depicting William Buckley.  Many drawings, prints, photographs and paintings depict shipping and other activities on Corio Bay.

The creation process

The Timelapse work

  1. Camera work:  The tripod was set up on my front verandah.  If there was too much wind, it was likely to blow over.  Stillness also promotes reflections in the waters of Corio Bay. 

    • As the lateral movement of the tripod does not lock effectively, the camera position changed a little when adjusting from low light to daylight conditions (this was manual). 

    • The battery lasts approximately 20 hours - less when using longer exposure times.  Automatic pre-view was turned off to extend battery life. 

    • Technical details:  Camera - Canon EOS60D DSLR, shutter - Satechi blue ray remote, Lenses - Canon EFS 10-22 mm (wide angle) and EFS70-300mm (zoom).  

  2. Processing -

    • Photoshop used to reduce photos to 1024 px wide (web standard)

    • Ship images added (from Photoshop altered web pictures and my own photographs) frame by frame using batch processing in Photoshop.

    • Timelapse movie made in Windows Moviemaker, 10 frames/second.  This is a basic program, but worked well for this purpose.  The preliminary gifs were made using Photoshop. 

The City Colour Change

The initial day or night photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 60D camera. 

The manipulations and colour changes made in Photoshop.

The photographs were animated using Windows Movie Maker with variable times per frame. 

 

The Night photo:

The day photograph:

  • transitions added in Windows Moviemaker - pixelation (not entirely successful - I'd probably remove these if I use this work again). 

The intent of the pieces

The two time lapse works are intended to show how time changes a landscape.  There are two facets to this.  The first is the change of light over a day and night.  Dawn and dusk are transitions between day and night.  The sky changes constantly as clouds pass, the sun moves, and stars, aeroplanes and planets wheel across the sky at night.  The second aspect is the history of shipping on the bay.  I tried to find images of some of the types of vessels which have been used on Corio Bay, an indigenous canoe, Matthew Flinders ship 'Investigator', a clipper ship, early steamers, a troop ship from the first world war, freighters, tankers and a cruise liner that visited earlier this year.  As well as this, the camera also captured the normal shipping and boats on Corio Bay - sped up by the time lapse process.   Using the wide angled lens gave a wide angle on the sky - with some excellent cloud timelapse showing colour and movement - and stars moving at night. 

 

It would be good, as a further project to make a work based on the same view of Geelong City over time - watching the city grow.  Even in the 23 years we have lived in Rippleside, there has been a very big change in the city skyline. 

 

The colour change works showed light in a different way.  I am fascinated by the way our perception is affected by colour.  By changing the sky in the daytime photo, there is a change to the mood - there may even be a feeling of disorientation or nausea.  Distorting the image, or blurring by filters, leads towards abstraction.  This was really a lot of playing around - with a few images I was really happy with, and lots that were not worth bothering with. 

The nighttime image work was a bit of serendipity.  I had processed some images with HDR (high dynamic range) software, and by chance, when processing in photoshop, inverted the image - every colour was reversed.  I liked the look of this, and how it rendered the view mysterious.  I therefore continued with the colour manipulation - but only used a few of the images in the final animation.  If I used this work again, I would change the colour of the glitches to something more harmonious with the colours of the base images. 

 

In setting up the exhibition, we ended up with five projections.  My Geelong timelapse works were looped in the gallery window, facing the bay - echoing the view which they depicted. 

In the main body of the space, all students' work (except my time lapse works) was looped on three screens, at different times.  The fourth projection was onto a brick wall - Meg's Disco Dancer animation with music. 

By luck, another artist, Ebben Greaves, shared the space - with a sound activated sculpture Particle.  This worked wonderfully well with the projections, especially as it picked up the loud parts of the music on Meg's animation. 

Audience Response

Several hundred visitors viewed the exhibition.  Many stayed for some time.  There was interaction with Eben Greaves sound sculpture - especially when people realised that the instruments set out were for their use.  Children were particularly uninhibited in this. 

People also reacted to the projections in various ways.  Meg's dancing mannekin had several people dancing along.  Some people enjoyed the silhouettes created by making shadows on the projections.  As well as the usual rabbits and simple figures - there were some quite amusing (even R-rated) efforts. 

Large numbers of passers by on the waterfront stopped to view the Corio Bay projections in the gallery window.  Many then visited the Project Space to view the other works. 

The New Wilderness tents provided the opportunity for children (and young-at-heart adults) to play with light - there were coloured torches and LED party sticks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With more time, consideration could have been given to the juxtaposition of the various students' work within the video loops.  The multiple projections were successful.  Better quality projectors might have allowed for projections on the floor, ceiling - or the footpath outside.  (Unfortunately, time constraints also stopped the projection of Natalie's 'Rat Invasion' projection.)

 

References for borrowed images

I used ship images from various internet sources.  These were then cut from the background and otherwise manipulated in Photoshop. 

In doing so, if this projection were for other than education purposes, I would need to seek permission where the works are still under copyright.  Some image source sites give no indication of the copyright holder of the original image, or whether the images are open source. 

List of sources: 

 

 

 

Timelapse of the setup of the exhibition in the Project Space and the beginning of Geelong After Dark. 

Still photographs at 10 second intervals from 6:04PM

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