In 2012, I was commissioned to design an exhibit for Portsmouth's Victorian Festival. The show centered on the haunting tale of a man driven by an obsession to reconnect with his deceased lover. This inventor, Professor Zuccato, traveled the world, studying diverse rituals and beliefs surrounding deeping our relationship with the dead. Ultimately he sought to build a machine that could bring him closer to his beloved.
The exhibit was staged in a spacious room filled with maritime displays encased in glass. To reimagine the space, we installed partition walls that highlighted photos and designs chronicling Zuccato's life and quest. Among the various displays was a large wooden model ship, transformed into an interactive piece that illustrated Zuccato's perilous journey across stormy seas.
At the center of the exhibit was the pinnacle of Zuccato's work—the 'Obscura.' Powered by an array of mysterious devices, This enigma of a machine, was reputed to connect its users to a realm near the afterlife. Working with several artists, we used several projectors/ projection mapping to bring the machine to life, incorporating elements inspired by World War I-era technology - and numerous adapted items from the 1940s. The result was a the tickled blend of history and the supernatural, capturing the audience's imagination.
Over the course of 2 days the show was visited by over 400 people including families and children.
Process
I had just stopped working as a nurse and I had been meditating on the relationship people have to death and the dead. This caused introspection and then outrospection! One sunny day in Manchester (it's never sunny in Manchester) I stumbled across an old printing press designed by Zuccato. I started to look into Zuccato's life, it appeared he was an Italian inventor who registered numerous patents for different machines. Sometime's we use the tools around us to deal with the problems at hand and I imagined Zuccato loosing his lover and mind such as his pursuing a way to reconnect to them.
story developed of a man consumed by the pursuit of more than communing with the dead. A man who travelled the globe learning the many different methods and beliefs with how people communed with the dead.
Professor Zuccato's Obscura