EOY installation prep

To prep the space, I patched and painted the walls, painted the windowsill and cleaned the inside of the window itself. There wasn't a lot to do, but in a minimal installation arrangement I wanted the space to be as minimally distracting and tidy as possible. Unfortunately I wasn't able to remove the paint marks someone had previously left on the metal window surround, but managed to get the large ones off the floor at least.

Unfortunately, the CNC seat construction plan fell through due to the company I was working with booking up throughout the week, so I attempted to DIY a solution myself. After tinkering in Blender, I found a plugin that slices my model scan into planes, and from that I made a printable template in Adobe Illustrator. This was cut from plywood and glued into 4 separates pieces to make moving it around easier. However I completely underestimated how much time I would need to smooth this down, and decided to omit it from the final installation - it has some great qualities I think, but I don't want it dragging down the rest of things in the space. Still, will keep polishing it off and hopefully will have an opportunity to use it in an iteration in future. As an alternative seat option, I picked up some upholstery foam from Para Rubber and wrapped it in black calico. I wanted to go with a natural fabric of some kind, but also didn't want to have to worry about the implications of colours/patterns/etc. (perhaps overthinking things, but in such a minimal set up everything has weight...). This was fixed to the top of another bench I made a few months ago with strong double sided tape.

The speakers I am using at 3-inch marine speakers (designed for use on boats, water craft and anywhere else water is a factor in the environment). To tidy up their installation, I found some magnetic fixtures that can attach themselves to the metal bars in the ceiling. To secure the speakers, I used a thin steel wire and small ferrules that I found at a Marine Deals, a local fishing supplies shop I go to for fishing tackle. It was a happy accident to be able to use materials that are fishing related in the installation, although this wasn't mentioned in the room sheet, and they were found by chance. To create surrounds for them, I found a short piece of stormwater drainage pipe at Bunnings, and cut it into small lengths. Three holes were then drilled in the top (two for wire, one for speaker cable), and the wire threaded through and around the speaker to hold it in place. Initially I was uncertain about the exposed wiring and open back of the speakers, but I think in hindsight I appreciate this element - I think it adds an important element of the technological/digital to the work, which has been a core theme in my practice.

Hiding the speaker wire took some time, but after threading each piece through the ceiling through a small hole drilled in the ceiling panel, I managed to link them to their respective Bluetooth amps in the far corner. These along with two phones (each playing one stereo track comprised of two individual recordings) and their chargers are powered by a power bank and an extension cord. I tried to make sure the speakers are arranged in a way where viewers have the opportunity to interact with them at close range, while also being able to stand within the centre of them to experience the combined sonic landscape.

The portfolio is printed, however I just noticed a mistake - "Weranui River" should read "Waiwera River"! I ended up going with a simply saddle stitch design due to time constraints and the wish for something easy to hold and read.