Installation for the exhibition 'AstroLAB',
APT Gallery, London : 2014.
Distressed projectors and fixtures

Contemporary telescopes gather the light from stars and turn it into pixels so as to analyse it digitally. In this work I use random pixels generated by two distressed projectors to reverse this process.

The pixels are projected as a galactic swirl of stars across the gallery. Implicit in this piece is the prospect of the imminent failure of one or both of the projectors. Implicit also is the allusion to Hershel’s great 40 ft telescope of 1749 and its gantry-like structure.

Right: The Installation set-up (with lights on) showing the ladder construction supporting the sheets of mirror Melanex and the angle of the projectors casting pixels onto the wall. The projected images would have been the start-up screen of the projector. (click to enlarge)

Projected pixel details below (click to enlarge)

All the items in this installation were reclaimed. The projectors had been permanently on display for nearly 6 months in a previous exhibition and had suffered pixel 'burn-out' across the whole of the display area. Apart from replacing the chip (an expensive procedure) these items would have reached the end of their lives. This installation rejuvenated them as participants in another creative project. The ladder had previously collapsed and was useless and the mirror Melanex had been discarded by another artist in the studio block and had been left out for disposal.

Over time and with the heat from the projectors, the distribution of pixels changed considerably. I never knew when I came in each day what the piece would look like. The photos to the left are a representative sample.