To test out how my projection is going to work I am currently projecting onto the back of my wardrobe. The doorway is somewhat similar to the pillars I plan to use in the actual exhibition space, and the distance from this to the wall is only around 10cm different.
I was pleasantly surprised by how well the projector focussed the shadows. As I bought my slide projector second hand, instead of the standard lens, it came with a Leica one, which can be focussed at a huge range. This really helped, I twisted the lens out almost as far as it would go. This also meant the square frame of light became blurred and small light flares formed on the corners, which is an effect I'm really fond of.
The wings, as I had predicted turned out to be more troublesome. I began testing with scraps of white paper, so I could get them to the right size. I had intended to make the wings out of layers of paper feathers, but, as I soon learned, this was going to be far too heavy for the delicate clock pendulums, halting them completely.
Another issue with the wings, was finding the right way to hang them. When using a single piece of horizontal thread joining the pendulums, the clock mechanisms struggled, and often stopped moving. Therefore I added another length of thread attaching this thread to the ceiling. This helped to take some of the weight and the mechanisms functioned perfectly. The final issue was that the wings kept twisting around, so I tied an extra piece of thread to the centre and taped this to the inside of each wing. This kept the wings at the right angle, and I think it also helped to make the movement of the wings more realistic.
