Daniel Harris

Portland Square building 'startup sequence'

Home > Animation

In brief

Date

2003

Format

High Definition video, projected in the building atrium for the building launch ceremony

Interaction

The video was started by the Mayor pressing a very large ON switch

Client

Univeristy of Plymouth, IDAT

The detail

For the opening of the University of Plymouth's brand new Technology Faculty building, Portland Square, I was asked to create an animated sequence that would reference both the past and future uses of the building.

The site of the Portland Square building was a sensitive testament to the devistation Plymouth felt during the air raids of WW2. It had been the site of an air shelter that suffered a direct hit resulting in scores of civilian deaths.

The animation aimed to acknowledge this heritage, and honor the names of the dead through a start-up sequence metaphor.

Names of those killed were used as MS-DOS - like start-up code which metamorphasised into the names of the staff whom, in 2003 the building, would be sheltered and nurtured - creating the conditions for new technologies, research and ideas to thrive.