00 Scale Triptych: Radio Optical 11 H2 Ionised 0182. 2021

These artworks use the language of the 00 scale model railway environment to explore the general concepts of 'model-making' and the specifics of working within a scaled environment. Model-making can operate in several directions but usually it is seen as verisimilitude in transcribing from the 'real world' to the miniaturised as a way of bringing large scale chaotic elements under comprehension and therefore control.

Alternatively it can work from comprehensible sub-units (because they are small scale and controllable) to emulate and predict how the full scale world operates. But this reliance on the experiential world is not necessarily the whole story. Once in the model environment, changes and abstractions can be speculated that would be impossible otherwise.

In today's world we can see the overwhelming reliance on the use of model-making in science. These artworks also comment on the substantial dangers inherent in this approach. Maths is useful but no substitute for the observation of phenomena and the application of mechanics. Following in the footsteps of the current crop of science modelers, these artworks have been engineered to be disassembled and reconstructed to fit the data.

At first, my interest in the 00 environment came about through wanting to make an extended micro-dolly for my digital movie camera. The intension was to use it for animations and set-piece tabletop explorations. But one thing led to another... and the initial 1-2 metres extended to several, and then looped round to form a circuit. Obviously the table top could not contain this expansion and so it migrated to the floor.

Afterwards, I set about looking for alternative uses for the hardware I had accumulated. This led to the creation of the aerial installations 'Climate Model 02' for the exhibition 'Perpetuum Mobile' 2008, 'The Inconstant Heavens' at the C4CC in 2010 to the Molecular Cloud series of 2015 / 2016. In 2018 and 2019 I further developed the idea of a 'conceptual orrery' where ideas contained in the wagons could be orbited around the space both physically and in terms of the contingency of their content. These contain embedded philosophical texts, the spectra of elements, scientific theories, lists of astronomical nomenclature and metaphorical plasmas.

Link to 00 Scale Installations and Orreries

Link to Engine Bodies