Infrared Pollution Experiments

As can be seen, this is one of three results from our experiment shooting with an infrared camera. We wanted to create a moving image piece using this technology, although a challenge to use in terms of its practicality, because Infrared rays are one of the key factors that contribute to the warming of the environment, by getting trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gasses. We felt that it may be effective to shoot from the perspective of this type of wavelength, allowing us to see what is causing this warming (pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels), but almost from the point of view of an Infrared ray. Being unable to take the full spectrum camera off of university campus, as its Infrared capabilities allow it to be seen as a weapon,  made this task fairly limiting as we didn't have much choice in the way of the content we were shooting. We had to shoot outside (to pick up IR rays) and we on campus. Furthermore, the fact that this full spectrum camera was unable to shoot video limited us further, giving us no other option but to create a time-lapsed stop-motion film from a series of images.

Each of these three video tests possess different colour grading settings. Whilst video one shows the footage straight from the camera, videos 2 and 3 show two variants of colour grades. For us, the typically recognised 'IR look' was not achieved in video one, so we attempted to find two different ways of doing this - taking them to different extremes.

Because this piece was very minimal, we decided to combine it with another piece, in an attempt to make the work as a whole appear stronger. To do this, we projected this video on a plinth holding a TV monitor which was showing our Schlieren optic experimentation. This created the impression that the smoke was rising from the chimney, creating a change in air density, which was visualised through our colour changing Schlieren experiment. We felt as though these pieces worked symbiotically to create a stronger narrative in the project.