Powis Castle

Final Videos

Favourite Objects at Powis Castle

Roman Cat (volunteers’ reactions)

Roman Cat (visitors’ reactions).

My aim with the Powis Castle project has been to examine the powerful pull of ‘things’ in our lives, focusing my study on the volunteers who work at and the visitors who come to Powis Castle. I wanted to highlight the passion and dedication of the volunteers by studying their bond with the ‘things’ at Powis. I also wanted to observe the visitors and analyse what draws them to the castle.

The theme of this project is material culture, which refers to our relationship to objects. This encompasses buildings, clothes, possessions, places and nature. Our lives are bound up in a network of objects both material and natural. Most of these things go unnoticed; however, they are integral to our lives. We create objects that reflect on what we believe about the world; we form beliefs about the world based on the things around us. Things matter to us and they provide us with knowledge about ourselves, other people and the world around us.

I have made one video based on interviews with the volunteers about their favourite object. For this, I made an iPad animation of the chosen objects mentioned in interviews. I have also drawn each object in turn on an iPad, adding more layers, changing that object into the next one as the drawing becomes complete.

I have made a second video based on interviews with volunteers about an object chosen by me: the Roman Cat. For this I made a number of stop-motion animation videos of a drawing being made of a section of the cat. These have been added to volunteers’ discussions about the cat, and a number of other animations and real-life footage relevant to the discussions.

I have also printed out the iPad drawings to be exhibited alongside drawings I made of the Roman Cat.

The third video is based on discussions with visitors to the castle about their responses to the Roman Cat. This video is text based.

Experimentation

Below I’ve included a series of experimental videos I made as research for the final three video pieces.

Test animation of a ball

Test animation of the Roman Cat’s foot

Another test animation of the Roman Cat’s foot

Test animation using charcole

Test animation of drawing a part of the cat added to some audio about the cat

Test animation using paint on perspex – View of Verona

First iPad animation – objects turning into objects

Second iPad animation – my front room

 

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