DSDN 144 Project 3: Revised Proposal

For the last project in Photographics, I want to capture the unseen. I want to capture the things in our everyday world that we simply take for granted. There is an extensive matrix that is all around us in out lives, at home, at work, and at university. This is the matrix of the electrical cabling. There are cables in every single wall that surrounds us, and I want to make them visible. Light is energy, so displaying the presence of energy as light is a natural atomic progression. I'm very keen on achieving this through light painting. I want to find a way of getting much better at using this technique effectively and to convey the ideas that I'd trying to portray. One of my inspirations for this was the Wi-Fi light stick, that made visible the invisible fields of information in a 3-D space. I really want to document the electrical cabling that we just forget about. The style I want to achieve is a documentary style, showing the real world that we can see, right next to the real world that we can't see. I want to capture the images in pairs, so that I can really document the spaces I live in.

The way I plan to make these images is to use a standard exposure alongside with a long exposure, where by using the bulb setting on my camera, I can expose the image for as long as I like. I have the plans for the electrical cabling that I have been given access to by my Hall of Residence's warden. Sadly I am not legally allowed to post these plans on the internet, as this information being available could potentially endanger the lives of the residents. For my examples, I'll find freely available plans on the internet. During the long exposure, I will then paint the electrical cabling on the floors, walls and ceilings with a torch.
The purpose of the true image accompanied by the painted image is to document the spaces I live in and how perforated by electricity they are. Them being next to one another will allow for a direct comparison. To make sure that the light looks as natural as possible, I want to use a rather small aperture, which would then allow all of the space to be in focus.

I chose this idea because of a fascination with the unseen, and then when I saw the Wi-Fi light stick, I had my idea. Sadly, I don't have access to such technology, nor the knowledge to assemble it, so I went for something far more doable. I asked for the plans, was given them, and then I had my concept. I think this series of paired images would definitely interest people because it is displaying something people just don't think about any more.

I want to capture this concept via a series of pairs of images, showing different places in my everyday life and how the electrical cabling is evident there.