Making Marks (2019)

Making Marks was an interactive 360-degree digital artwork installed in the planetarium at the Great North Museum: Hancock. The artwork immerses visitors in a reimagining of the Whitburn sea caves on the northeast coast of England, which has links to objects in the museum’s collections and their stories. The artwork presented visual and sonic marks of a changing world – some relating to museum objects including fish and plant fossils, animal bones from the Whitburn sea caves, taxidermy of the Great Auk, and the Whitburn harpoon. Visitors were then asked “what mark will you leave” and invited to draw a response that became part of the growing piece. The artwork was shown as part of the museum’s “Great North Nights” from June to October 2019, as part of the accompanying programme to Dippy on Tour.

Watch a video about the artwork.

I designed this artwork in collaboration with Martin O’Leary and David de la Haye with contributions from Sarah Mander, Alistair Ford, and Jo Whitfield. My 360-degree photography of Thor’s Cave provided the backdrop of the artwork, as a replacement for the caves at Whitburn since lost to quarrying and the sea.

I developed and led this collaboration, which was supported by the Great North Museum: Hancock, Open Lab at Newcastle University, and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.