Homebase Heterotopia Project

Although I researched and understood the concept theory, I found it very difficult to translate into my work until I found the text ‘Of other spaces: Utopia and Heterotopias’ by Michael Foucault. He explains his heterotopia six principles, and the one that most resonated with me was his third principle where he said that ‘heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible’ - something I found very interesting to explore.

I was also inspired by the work ‘In Orbit’ by Tomas Saraceno, an enormous interactive installation made of transparent steel mesh and glass, which visitors can climb into and walk around as if they were in mid-air. The most fascinating thing I found is the people inside it, which gives the work the sense of a surreal cityscape, though it’s very real. As Saraceno says in his video, the artwork is made by the people interacting with the installation, for if they weren’t there it would be just a transparent structure.

My first thought was to create a virtual installation that could be inhabited by virtual people in an incompatible space, as per Foucault’s third principle, and to make it appear as if they were interacting with the installation

To decide on the incompatible space for my virtual installation and given that the task suggested that we use domestic space for our exhibition, I began by taking photos of different parts of my house at different times of day. And as I preferred the ones I took with artificial light I decided to try to use these as a base for my virtual exhibition.

I started thinking also about my self-initiated project – the magic realisms which I might be able to apply on this project and looked for shapes that could give the idea of magic that I might use to host some realistic characters – though I hadn’t at that stage chosen the characters I would use. That led me to explore the Creative Cloud package and I found Adobe Dimension which allow me to create 3D scenes and using my domestic spaces photos as a background I experimented by changing objects, materials, positions and lighting according to the environment.

Once I was happy with some of the 3D objects, I started looking for characters who could inhabit the objects. I wanted to use my own photos rather than something from the internet, something I already had, giving me the satisfaction that my efforts in taking the photos weren’t wasted.

I therefore looked through my pictures and made trials with different themes and decided on a series of pictures I took at a Mall Gallery event some years ago, when a troupe of ballet dancers did a special performance of the Nutcracker Suite for artists to do life drawings and/or take photos or videos.

Having chosen the photos, I used Photoshop to remove the backgrounds, isolate the bodies and decide the positions of the dancers within each object. To superimpose the characters on the environments I took screenshots of the scenes on Dimension and worked on PowerPoint. I didn’t at that time know about rendering, and that you could use Photoshop to render the work and superimpose the image - something I only learned later. I did however like the 3D reference lines of the screenshots, because I think it give the scene a sense of perspective so I decided to leave them like that.

Although the photographic outcomes looked nice, I felt that they would be better as moving images, something that also came out one of my group crits. After researching how to make 3D objects, holograms and 3D projections, I realised however that due to the timeline of the project I didn’t have the time or resources to do the work. Amanda suggested in my last tutorial that I could do a gif, so for my main piece I made a gif using a combination of Photoshop, Dimension, Procreate, iMovie and Premier Pro.

I also did research on work/exhibition statements on different websites and video exhibitions and the outcome is as below

Nutcracker-Magictopia Exhibition Statement

Nutcracker-Magictopia Exhibition is a virtual exhibition exploring the world of magic inhabited by real characters placed in a real space. The characters are dancers from the Nutcracker ballet (photographs) placed as if they were inhabiting a series of colourful shining 3D objects which produce the sense of magic in the work. They are all exhibited as hanging installations from the ceiling in different rooms of a domestic place. There is something magical in the work however, the incompatible placing of the exhibition draws attention to our lockdown situation due to Covid-19, and the incongruous situation of galleries, museums and theatres now-a-days.

Self-assessment

I feel that this project has been a very steep learning curve in the application of knowledge and also a new technology, though I enjoyed it very much and feel that I am improving, especially in the application of knowledge.

I was very impressed with the Saraceno installation, and though the result I produced is vastly different that was my inspiration. In terms of context, his work is linked Foucault’s Heterotopias fourth principle - Slice in time, whilst mine was a response to the third principle – that Heterotopias are capable of juxtaposing several incompatible spaces in a single one. In terms of materiality, Saraceno’s work is of course a physical installation in a museum, and mine is virtual installation in a domestic environment. Both of us introduced the element of human inhabitation in our work, and I think my work can be the prototype for either a physical installation or a virtual one using 3D projection technology in a gallery … maybe one day.

I’m pleased with the final outcome of the project; I think that it shows an improvement in my understanding and application of the concept of Heterotopia, and that I managed to incorporate magic realism in it, which has given me ideas for developing this work as the self-initiated project.

References

Architecture/Mouvement/Continuité Journal, Oct 1984 Of the other spaces: Utopia and Heterotopia, Michael Foucault -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFcxzoPbJis

https://www.heterotopiastudies.com/art-inspired-by-heterotopia/

https://www.heterotopiastudies.com/artists-respond-to-heterotopia/

https://tracesofthereal.com/2014/08/10/the-heterotopic-art-institution/

https://www.isthisitisthisit.com/data-fatigue

https://studiotomassaraceno.org/in-orbit/

https://www.veronikaneukirch.co.uk/touch-me