‘Double Gazing’– a site specific artwork for the Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Bristol by the artists Anna Heinrich & Leon Palmer

Description

‘Double Gazinga permanent, site-specific artwork that has been installed inside the rest room of the Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Bristol.The installation involves a series of 25 double-sided light-boxes spanning 5 large arched windows that face out to Marlborough Street at pavement level.Each window is about 3.5 metres wide and arches from approximately 1.2 metres to 1.8 metres high.There are 5 light-boxes for each window, the central box being fixed and the outer 4 being hinged so they can also operate as shutters.

The light-boxes illuminate images on their back and front faces.When all the light-boxes are closed these images form two panoramas.The back faces seen from the interior of the rest room create a photographic panorama of the view out of the windows across Marlborough Street.The front faces seen from Marlborough Street outside the building, form a panorama of the rest room and the ground floor of the Dorothy Hodgkin Building.This was created from a three-dimensional computer model that we constructed from CAD files supplied by the architects of the building, of the ground floor plan.Many of the inner walls in this virtual model were given a degree of transparency to draw the view deeper into the building.The scene was rendered from five viewpoints as if looking from a position outside each window.

There is a projection screen in the central light-box of windows 1,3 and 5.This screen can be viewed from inside and outside of the building.The screen appears to be housed in a white room that is integrated into both interior and exterior panoramas.Video projectors create a sequence across the three screens that relates to a number of scientific themes important in the research undertaken in the building.The video sequence takes about 55 minutes to complete and runs in a continuous loop in the early afternoon and evening.It is be visible from inside and outside of the building.

Concepts and Ideas

In developing the project we consulted closely with a number of the scientists that work in the building.During this time we were particularly interested not in imagery but the thought processes behind the work of the scientists and the nature of the curiosity that sustains it.We also spent considerable time developing the right protocol and format for the trials depicted in the video sequence with Dr Colin Dayan.

The initial idea of the project was to use art to create a point of focus that could begin to generate an informed dialogue between the public outside and the science and scientists within the Dorothy Hodgkin Building.We decided that our role as artists would be to try and create an artwork that could mediate between the two environments by appealing to the senses of both. 
The windows provide both a view in and a view out and anything placed in front of them filters and plays with this perception.Physical access to the interior of the Dorothy Hodgkin Building, like many buildings that stand within the public space of the city is restricted to the specialists that work there.The need for privacy was an important issue for the rest room but rather than just blocking off the view the artwork by its nature encourages a visual and imaginary access which increases when the shutters are all closed particularly at night.

This also replaces the live view from the interior with a snapshot of the view taken on Wednesday 15thOctober 2003.The static nature of the image seems to highlight the dynamic ever-changing scene outside. When just a few of the light-boxes are opened it is possible to line up the actual view with the images on the light-boxes - some of the same cars can be seen in the car park through the 4thand 5th windows as are in the images, often in the same parking space.The changes in the actual view show the passing of time particularly as the leaves fall off the trees or graffiti is renewed but more immediately as people and traffic move past.

As light-boxes are opened and folded back to the walls of the rest room, fragments of the panorama of the ground floor light up the interior.The process of who is seeing what becomes much less easy to define and hopefully thought provoking.

Hovering between these two exclusive views are the three rooms housing the projected video sequences.These are visible from both sides and they integrate moving figures within the two panoramas.We wanted there to be a moving human presence within the windows, firstly to give people a figurative connection to the artwork.We also wanted to make a more direct reference to the nature of scientific study relative to the unpredictability of human life and more specifically address some of the scientific themes that are important to the research in the Dorothy Hodgkin Building.

The Video Sequence

The video sequence covers five important scientific concepts; Random Control Trials, The Human Genome, Apoptosis, DNA and Molecular recognition.

Random Control Trials

The sequence works across three screens with characters moving from one space to another in real time.The scene begins in the centre with a suited character randomly distributing coloured blocks to three containers from a black sack.There are 540 blocks in total, 180 of each; Yellow, Green, Red and Purple.On one end of 20 of the blocks is a blue semi-circle.This character is called the ‘RCT controller’ and addresses the process by which scientific trials are undertaken to introduce a certain level of objectivity into tested outcomes.

Human Genome

Once the sack is empty, two of the containers are then taken to the rooms on either side to leave one in the centre.A clear-fronted display box is also taken into each room in which to stack the coloured blocks.From this point on, each room fills with four characters all blood-relatives, Mother, Father and two sisters.At times they inhabit all three rooms simultaneously as if each experiment they undertake is a representation of a part of their humanity.The fact that these characters are related is important as it makes an obvious reference to the human genome and DNA.

Apoptosis

Looking from the exterior of the building, the sequence in the left hand screen demonstrates a process of apoptosis (the natural and very necessary programmed death of cells).Each block laid down is attributed to the person placing it.Every time that person stops interacting with the others the duration of this isolation is timed.When these intervals add up to 120 seconds then their previously laid blocks black out.This continues throughout the sequence and the resulting pattern shows the process of ‘apoptosishas occurred.

DNA 

In the central room the process of DNA is represented.Here the characters randomly arrange the first column of blocks, move it to the right then supervise the building of the second column so colours are paired to specific colours.This reflects the way the four different building blocks, or bases, of DNA attach together.In this sequence A to T is Yellow to Green and C to G is Red to Purple.Supervision is relaxed at one point to allow the possibility of the process going out of sequence to cause a mutation.The process is continued until four columns are completed. 

Molecular Recognition

In the right handscreen the process of molecular recognition is represented.In this sequence the characters simple stack up the blocks randomly until the display box is full.At several points the blue semi-circles on the end of some of the blocks fit together to form a circle.At these points the screen flashes red and fades to highlight the completed circle as the two halves recognise each other.Although only one sequence is played here it took several rounds of stacking and dismantling before any circles were completed.

End of the sequence 

At the end of all the sequences, the rooms are left with just the results of the trials in the form of the full display boxes.This eventually fades and the sequence loops and starts again.