25/4/07
Testing CCTV cameras for Spy Hole
It occurred to me that my colour CCTV camera wasn’t working properly after testing it on four colour TV’s. I decided to buy a new colour CCTV and this works great on all of the TV monitors. Today I have been practicing with the set up for the exhibition in my studio space. The technical set up works well and there doesn’t seem to be any problems.
I now have to concentrate on the aesthetic set up regarding what materials I will use to contain the TV monitor and what type of monitors I will use to display live CCTV footage, either old retro monitors or flat screen monitors.
My original plan was to use 9 ml wooden walls to divide the space by having a spy hole in one space and an open installation space with two monitors on plinths in the other space. After discussing with my peer group and my tutor Frank it would seem that the aesthetic style in which I have set my work up (using a roughly cut spy hole made from cardboard) works well, along with the idea of the voyeur and the peeping tom. Sticky fingerprints and sweat marks can be left behind on the cardboard. Whereas a white wooden wall with a perfect hole doesn’t suggest the same type of narrative that is usually linked with peep shows. The material that separates the watched and the watcher is usually thin, unstable and grubby, showing signs of previous ‘wear and tear.’ With these thoughts of a peep show in mind I have decided to experiment with different materials such as brown tape, wall paper and paper to create a spy hole. I may even add a pungent smell of cheap aftershave and cigarettes to the installation.




20/4/07
Testing colour monitors
I have been using Panasonic and Phillips TV monitors to test my colour CCTV cameras to see if they produce colour successfully. I wasn’t sure if the CCTV camera was the problem or the television so I used a video camera and tested it on each monitor to see if it could 'read' colour.
I managed to find one colour monitor that worked with the CCTV camera, however this was when the camera was plugged into the TV and not the tuner (the camera is wireless and shouldn’t need to be plugged in to the TV). Although this isn’t a problem because I have adaptors for the phono leads to make them longer.
I think the CCTV camera didn’t have a strong enough signal to produce a colour image, because when it was linked directly to the TV the colour image appeared without a problem.