Theory Box is a research-led installation created by an academic fashion historian and a lighting designer. It started life at Symposium 2010 at Rose Bruford College, and was presented under the title Invisible Ink. The initiative for the collaboration came from both my and Caroline’s interest in the spectacular, the inconsistency of perception, and the role light plays in the presentation of a visual narrative. We spent a week at Rose Bruford in April 2010, with the aim to create a practical piece of research in one of the college’s excellent lighting laboratories, and with the support of Nesta Jones and the Symposium team. We looked at work by Victorian stage magicians, the Pepper’s Ghost effect, and Loie Fuller. At the end of the week we had created a model scale arrangement of mirrors and two figures, suspended in a very carefully lit black space. The piece then was commissioned by Sodja Lotker to be presented at Intersection Festival in Prague, in June 2011.
For further information on Theory Box, download the project report (PDF) Theory Box report