After my research into deep sea I decided that was the theme I’m going to carry forward, specifically the idea of the unknown and the fact that it is largely unexplored. The exhibition will focus mainly on the Abyssal Zone of the ocean and the creatures, landscapes and conditions within it.
Next up I needed to decide what the exhibition would consist of. I carried out some research into existing exhibitions about the sea to see what’s already out there.
The first exhibition I found was called Ocean Cube and is all depicting life under the sea. The exhibit reflects human life in the year 2119 through five, bioluminescent rooms. Start in the Coral Tunnel with a touchable 3D coral reef and end in the Recycle Bank, a colorful but polluted room full of bottles. The exhibition as a whole was about depicting what our life would be like under the sea, using jellyfish as transport and seeing using only the bioluminescence. The exhibition also focused largely on pollution of plastic in the sea.
The idea behind the exhibition is different to mine in that it looks into the idea of humans living in the sea, as well as pollution within the sea, neither of which I was interested in using within my exhibition, however I think the sculptures used as well as the colours are fascinating and the idea of the bright luminescent colours on the dark backgrounds really stands out to me.
There was also another exhibition in London during summer called ‘Sea Creatures, Life Beneath The Ocean’ which focused purely on the creatures, what they looked like and how their anatomy allowed them to thrive. Again, the idea of the exhibition is different to what I want mine to be, however the specimens within the exhibition and the overall design of it have some interesting ideas.
The exhibition has a common theme with ‘Ocean Cube’ in that it’s all very dark with only bright, neon colours lighting up the displays, this is a theme I’m definitely interested in using to go with the bioluminescent theme, and to stick with the idea that the deep sea is a very cold and dark place, I thinking mixing the two together could produce some interesting and experimental visuals.
Overall I think both the exhibitions do a good job at giving the feeling of being cold and dark, although the neon colours are bright, trebles and purples still give off quite a cold feel which is something that I definitely want to be present within my exhibition. however they have both taken a very literal response to the sea them in showing the creatures very specifically, whereas I think the route I am planning to go down will be more about the cold, darkness and especially the eeriness you would feel at the bottom of the ocean. I want to play around with the lights and colours, as well as the temperature to give an immersive experience to make the viewer feel what it would be like to be down in the sea with some of the most dangerous predators in the world. The idea of the unknown is something I want to experiment with more.
Ben Jackson 