During our rehearsal process we have been influenced heavily by the use of immersion and blurring the boundaries of a dream and reality. To assist us in doing this we needed to ensure that the space was to be advantageous towards our idea, yet be practical enough to enable a functional live element. We had already toyed with the idea of using the grid, something that had never been done before at the LPAC, and were keen to explore other innovative ideas to make sure that our performance was as engaging and dynamic as possible.
We looked into the concept of creating real life clouds in the LPAC. The reason of this is because we are exploring the definition of reality, and what can perceived as real and not. Being able to create something natural, something that exists only in the “real world” in a space that we created something that isn’t real would assist with our attempts to blur the distinction. However, to do this, we needed to see whether or not creating a cloud in a space is possible.
Conceptually, creating a cloud in a space is not impossible. Here is the MetOffice’s definition of how clouds are formed:
Clouds form when the invisible water vapour in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals. There is water around us all the time in the form of tiny gas particles, also known as water vapour. There are also tiny particles floating around in the air – such as salt and dust – these are called aerosols.
The water vapour and the aerosols are constantly bumping into each other. When the air is cooled, some of the water vapour sticks to the aerosols when they collide – this is condensation. Eventually, bigger water droplets form around the aerosol particles, and these water droplets start sticking together with other droplets, forming clouds. (MetOffice, 2013)
In order to form water droplets into a form that looks like a cloud it needs to be cooled, cooling the moisture in the air allows it to condense, but in order to allow the moisture in the air to condense the lower half of the auditorium would have to be heated allowing the moisture to remain airborne, and the top of the auditorium would need to be considerably colder to allow for the moisture to condense. This would have meant drastically changing the size of the space into something that would be more manageable, and we weren’t willing to go that far just for a concept that seemed more and more unfeasible. It was becoming clear why something like this had never been done before, because it is either way beyond our capabilities, or is just not possible, so we looked into another possibility, of creating the illusion of a cloud.
A dutch artists by the name of Berdnaut Smilde has accumulated attention by creating clouds in doors. His approach is the most likely way to be able to create and mold a cloud into a desired space.
(Xellent10, 2013)
Smilde’s method of cloud formation is somewhat similar to the natural occurence in the way that the moisture in the air becomes denser. What Smilde does is saturate the air first with a bottle of solution, after the air is moist enough he then adds a light puff of smoke from a smoke machine which effectively ‘clings’ onto the water droplets allowing a brief formation of an apparent cloud. Fundamentally all that is happening is he just turns on a smoke machine. It is the moisture that is saturated in the air that prevents the smoke from dispersing too quickly. This means that the conditions in the room temperature wise have to be perfect to allow the cloud to stay in shape for as long as possible.
This method of cloud formation in a space would be the most simple, and practical way of doing so, but there is a draw back, and that is the fact that the cloud disperses in just a few seconds. In order for clouds to remain throughout the performance the air would have to be saturated constantly throughout and the smoke machine activated intermittently. Because we are creating a sense of immersion, we didn’t want the immersion to be broke by one of us spraying solution over everyone’s heads. So unfortunately for the mean time, this idea will remain just an idea
Works Cited
MetOffice (2013) What are Clouds and How do they Form? Available at: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/clouds/what-are-clouds (Accessed: 13 March 2013)
Xellent10 (2013) How to Make Clouds Indoors: The Art of Berndnaunt Smilde. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr4Fhr8JF-U (Accessed: 13 March 2013)
By Luke Talbott
