Over the Christmas, I went up to Edinburgh with a few friends. We stayed up there for a few days and spent our time there by wandering around Arthur's Seat, going on a few ghost walks, looked around Edinburgh Castle, ate haggis and black pudding, drank, and most interestingly went to an exhibition or two. Now, I've already been to said show in the post's title, but because I enjoyed it so much last time a few years back, I thought we'd go again for the sake of what I was studying at MA level. Camera Obscura is a museum of optical illusions on various scales. I regard it as one of those very few exhibitions one can engage on a thought-provoking and enjoyable level at the same time.
Here are some of the pictures:
These two are of the mirror maze we went into, and the only explicit instruction at the beginning of this experience requested that we wear protective gloves (to avoid the finger marks on the mirrors). The only hazard one can perceive here is walking face-first into a mirror, hence using your hands to feel your way through.
This was an interactive piece that involved painting the screen with a light source onto the screen.
Possibly my favourite part. Once you walked onto the bridged platform, your orientation swirls as you try to find your balance, hence the railings. A lot would understandably find this experience nauseating, but I would of course find it seamlessly engaging (given that I kept going through it repeatedly).
This box didn't have many dimensions, but mirrored them into many more with light and reflections. If one took a look inside, the "ripples" or "waves" would go on indefinitely.
A phosphorescent wall from light photography. What happened was that you posed in front of the light, step away and find that your shadow has now been printed onto the wall.
The museum consisted of five stories of optical illusion and interactive art, and celebrated those in the 20th century as well as the 21st who delved into this type of practice and insight into playful perspective.
This marks my second case study in the form of a short holiday away from the East-Midlands. The overall point to my project as it stood over the Christmas period was to find out what made an interactive experience in a gallery environment seamless, and investigate the problems and hazards involved in facilitating such visual endeavours. I addressed a few points and flaws already in my previous case study on Ali Northcott's Embody performance; in this one I looked for the elements that made it seamless.
Comparing the two case studies
Granted, the two case studies are quite distant from each other in terms of time and scale. Embody was a schedules, temporary performance whereas Camera Obscura was permanently established and installed. Embody only occupied a ground floor setting that was temporarily altered to facilitate its content. Camera Obscura has a five stories of space and endures seasons of visitors due to its status as a main tourist attraction on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
Drawn Conclusion
There is one possible conclusion that I have drawn out from this particular holiday: A seamlessly interactive experience may point to a solidly established show; that functioning like a museum. Exhibitions and museums I note are far from the same. A permanent collection of certain works I think would have had a huge amount of time to be improved, added to, maintained and promoted. A performance or exhibition in a temporary space works to far tighter deadlines when being set up and taken down; it also would have had temporary invigilators if not for the chosen venue's own staff if it had any to take care of the work and apply whatever facilitation in order for the show to function, especially on a single night of performance. There are of course rehearsals to rectify the uncertainty, but it also depends on availability, quick organisation and probably funding. So, it would be paramount to take on those who know exactly what they are doing. A permanent exhibition like Camera Obscura has a lot more time, breathing space and most likely more staff for this.
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