In January our group had to exhibit the work that will be in our final exhibition in the ava building. All the groups had to come together to discuss who will be exhibiting where.
Layout
Layout
Land Art
The Venue
Address: Planetarium,
Anchor Road,
Bristol, Avon
BS1 5DB.
Giant silver dome in Millennium Square on the habourside in Bristol City Centre. Its surrounding Open Spaces are full of discovery and surprise - enjoy public art in the form of beautiful water and light features, landscaping and sculptures, including a statue of Bristol-born Cary Grant. Anchor Square and Millennium Square are full of shops, cafes and places to relax, with the backdrop of the Harbour attractions and ferries. The Planetarium is situated in a most futuristic building which is shaped as sphere and is a mirrored structure.
I decided the Planetarium would be a good venue choice for my Crop Circle Exhibition as the architecture of the building slightly resembles a ufo/spaceship.
Seating will be removed with a huge vinyl crop circle on the ground. The dome will be split into 3 sections, a section on Doug and Dave, large high quality prints of crop circles, and large high quality prints of crop circles used in advertising. A small shop will be placed in the middle selling stationary and postcards.
Land Art
The exhibition will be split into 3 different sections. 1 section for display of unexplained crop circles, another for the display of crop circles that have been used for advertising purpose and the 3rd will be on Doug Bower and Dave Chorley.
Crop Circles: Doug Bower and Dave Chorley.
Crop Circles: Doug Bower and Dave Chorley.
Publicity Seekers or Genius’?
In September 1991 two Englishmen, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, stepped forward to take credit for the entire crop circle phenomenon.
Doug Bower had been on a trip to Australia where he had seen media reports of the ‘Tully UFO’ incident, in which a circular inprint had been left in the reedy swamp land from which a flying saucer had been seen taking off.
One night on the way home from the pub Doug told Dave about the UFO, which put the idea into their heads. According to the pair their activities begun as a bit of fun back in the late 1970s. They wanted to trick people into thinking UFOs had landed. Their hobby soon turned into an obsession
The tools the pair used were disarmingly simple, being nothing more than wooden planks and string. Armed with the equipment the pair were able to demonstrate the ability to fashion crop circles similar to many that had been found.
To the great disappointment of the friends there was no reaction what so ever after their first circle. Nobody could see the crop circles, apart from the workers in the fields, who weren’t to pleased. This went on for 2 years until the pair decided they needed somewhere with a better public eye view. In 1981 they found the perect spot, Cheesefoot head, a hill in Hampshire, where because of slopping ground the crop circle would be clearly visable. They waited until Spring, but the reaction was immediate. The local paper reported it and then the story was reported nation wide.
A whole industry began to develop around the crop circles. People wrote books on them, delivered lectures, and pontificate in every form of every media known to man about what they believed behind the phenomenon. This was all to the great amusement of Doug and Dave, who collected every report and laughed about them over their pints of beer.
The pair took great pleasure in discomforting the so-called experts. When one expert stated that the crop circles may had been formed by miniature tornadoes as the circles were always made in a clockwise direction, Doug and Dave went out and made one
anti-clockwise. Another brought to attention that the crop circles always appeared on a Saturday morning, this was because Dave and Doug would make them after their Friday night drinking session. One year Dougs wife became suspicious with the amount of miles their car was racking up. Faced with the accusation of an affair Doug had to come clean. With his wife in on the secret and willing to help, they were know free to complete crop circles any day of the week.
The phenomenon became huge, best-selling books were written about it. There was talk of the government commissioning some kind of inquiry into the whole thing. Doug and Dave decided it was time to come clean, they didn’t want tax payers money wasted on their fun. By the time the pair came clean Doug was 67 and Dave was 62.
Cerealogists noted that it strained credibility to think that the pair had created all the hundreds of circles that had been found in the past decade, and they certainly could not have been responsible for the circles outside of England.
Some people believe that the Doug and Dave story was a deliberate disinformation campaign being orchestrated by MI5 to conceal the reality of the British governments contact with aliens.
Remembering Jan Kaplicky - Architect of the future
A World-renowned Czech architect born 18th April 1937, he spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. Kaplicky was best known for the futuristic Selfridges building in Birmingham, and the Media Centre at Lords Cricket Ground in London.
Awards and Prizes
Stirling Prize (1999)
World Architecture Awards (2001)
Royal Institute of British Architects Award for Architecture (2004)
Signage
Information on Jan Kaplicky was placed at the entrance for visitors to read before they made their way around the exhibition, it was presented on white vinyl. It was clearly visible and very easy to read. The model names and information was typed out onto black blocks and stuck next to the pieces that were being exhibited, this method was also used to describe the photos on the wall too. If a model needed some extra information, this was typed out in black onto transparent vinyl and stuck onto the display cases.
How could it be better?
There wasn’t a huge amount of information on Kaplicky and his works. I received a small booklet at the ticket office, which contained very limited information and wasn’t much use to me. A hand out that goes into more detail of the models on display would have been very useful as well.
Labeling
All the labels were very clear and easy to read, they stood out as they were on black mounting in a very white room, clear room. The labels were at the bottom of the models which meant having to lean down to see them, this was a good thing as it meant I was also looking at the structures of the models in more detail. It made me notice the little man falling off the bridge, I wasn’t sure if this was something Jan himself had done or if it was a joke by someone that works at the museum, either way without the labelling being placed there I would have never had noticed small things such as that.
Publicity
I found out about the exhibition via a search engine when typing in my interests on the type of exhibition I would like to visit. I hadn’t seen any information or advertisements about it before hand. I contacted some friends who study architecture to see if they had heard about it and they also hadn’t. This shows that the exhibition wasn’t well advertised unless you are a frequent visitor to The Design Museum.
Layout
The layout was pretty simple; the exhibition was kept to just one plain room. The first part to the right as the visitor goes in has a small table with a few models on; they also have the information on what is on display. There was a TV mounted onto the wall with images of Kaplicky’s work with commentary over the top. In the main part of the exhibition was one huge table with several models on; these went along the table in two rows. There was also a long wall with large posters showing the odd architecture in photo form, there was also another TV screen. The room in which the displays were exhibited in had a great source of natural light, which meant fewer light bulbs were needed.
The layout was pretty simple; the exhibition was kept to just one plain room. The first part to the right as the visitor goes in has a small table with a few models on; they also have the information on what is on display. There was a TV mounted onto the wall with images of Kaplicky’s work with commentary over the top. In the main part of the exhibition was one huge table with several models on; these went along the table in two rows. There was also a long wall with large posters showing the odd architecture in photo form, there was also another TV screen. The room in which the displays were exhibited in had a great source of natural light, which meant fewer light bulbs were needed.
Technology
The only piece of technology that had been used as part of the exhibition were the TVs mounted onto the wall going through a slide show of Kaplickys work. As there wasn’t much technology being used the wouldn’t of been a worry for having a large amount of plug sockets.
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