Artistic Concept

Following on from “Interwoven Motion”, a NESTA funded project to develop a prototype self-powered outdoor video installation in Grizedale Forest in 2004, media artist Chris Meigh-Andrews has been commissioned to produce an ambient responsive outdoor installation on the Monument by Julian Harrap Architects. This work has been produced in collaboration with Sandbox at the University of Central Lancashire with funding from the City of London Corporation.

The installation provides a live stream of continually modified time-lapse images 24 hours a day, 7 days per week and can be accessed on this dedicated web site and as a “live” image via a video screen display near the base of the Monument. This web site also makes available a continuously updated series of still images of the panorama from the top of the Monument. They are digitally unfolded from the circular images produced by the camera/lens system at the heart of this installation.

A computer controlled digital camera provides a 360-degree panoramic view from the top of the Monument. Changes to the image display are facilitated by a dedicated computer system with interfaces and software that modify the image in response to changes in the ambient conditions of the surrounding environment, specifically wind velocity and direction, average temperature and barometric pressure. This data is used to modify the image stream from the camera in a number of different ways relating to the changes in the weather, so for example the speed of the image stream relates to the wind speed, and the rotation of the image relates to the wind direction. Ambient temperature modifies the colour of the image, whilst changes in the pressure will modify the image contrast. The resulting images therefore will provide a dynamic visual record of the surrounding environment of the Monument in the heart of the City of London.

Schematic Diagram of the system

Some Background to the Installation Project

This work is both a development from my previous digital video projects, particularly Interwoven Motion, (2004) and For William Henry Fox Talbot (The Pencil of Nature), (2002) and a departure, in that it is a public art work commissioned and designed to operate continuously for 3 years.

Interwoven Motion - 2004

As with many of my previous installations, Si Monumentum…. is site-specific and in part responds to aspects of the history of the site- the Monument to the Great Fire of London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke as a monument to that great catastrophe and to the resurrection and re-emergence of the city of London. Many of my previous installations including For William Henry Fox Talbot and Interwoven Motion have also been directly related to the site they occupy and to the particular artists and scientists associated with them. I am especially interested in constructing works that resonate with the building or location of the original- the oriel window at Lacock Abbey which was the subject of the world’s oldest surviving photograph, or the view of Coniston Water in the English lakes in Cumbria favoured by Ruskin, for example.

For William Henry Fox Talbot (The Pencil Of Nature) - 2002

The Monument is of particular interest to me because it was designed by Wren and Hooke as both an architectural structure and a scientific instrument. Both men lived during a period in English history in which radical new ideas about science, religion and politics were sweeping away previously held convictions, and at a time when the activities of the artist and the scientist were more integrated and interrelated. Both men established their reputations initially as scientists before consolidating their careers as architects. Wren was made Gresham Professor of Astronomy in 1657 (age 24!) and Hooke became Gresham Professor of Geometry in 1665, and was curator of experiments a the Royal Society. Both were gifted draughtsmen, using their skills to vividly sketch their observations and ideas. Hooke and Wren were fascinated by optics, mathematics and the scientific method, and when they developed their plans for the Monument, they ensured that it would be useful to the continuation of their experimental work. For example the massive hollow column of the Monument originally contained a telescope, and the spiral staircase steps were designed to facilitate the measure of barometric pressure.

Their Monument to the Great Fire is sited close to the spot where the infamous blaze began in 1666, and from the observation platform near the top, the visitor can survey the city that rose from the ashes. As architects, Hooke and Wren were instrumental in the rebuilding of the city. Given Wren and Hooke’s interest in optics and lenses, and their crucial contribution to the development of London after the fire, the opportunity to develop a camera system capable of providing a complete 360 degree panoramic image of the surrounding cityscape was a wonderful and unique opportunity. I wanted to develop a way of presenting a flowing image of continuous flux, an image that responded to the changing weather conditions, the fluctuating light, and the dynamic vista of the heart of the City of London.

Chris Meigh-Andrews, January, 2009.