Last week was the end of term at Imperial, and we had to present the results of our group project work. The brief for the project was basically an incredibly vague “make something”, with the added proviso that it should make use of ideas discussed in the previous term.
After some discussion my group decided to explore common language and symbolism between religion and science, in particular the use of the word “epiphany” to describe the moment of scientific insight. This idea eventually took shape as an altarpiece, featuring yours truly as both a scientist and a priest.
We wanted to depict the various stages in a scientist’s career and compare them to the life of a priest. I’ve uploaded full size photos of each section, so click on them for a larger view.
A young man decides to become a scientist, and must learn the rules and customs.
The man undergoes a right of passage by getting his PhD and becoming a scientist.
Working in the lab, the scientist has a flash of inspiration.
He must resist the lure of big business and continue with his work.
Having died, he lives on through his theories.
Not being remotely artistic I left the actual crafting to others, so most of my work was done in Photoshop. I had to combine the various photos we took, add objects and sometimes change scenes entirely. I also applied various filters to make the images look more like paintings. I’ve also uploaded my original Photoshop work to give a clearer idea of the images - we intentionally made them look worn for the actual altarpiece. Once again, watch out for large files!
So, that’s what I’ve been spending much of my time on in the past few weeks. I’m not completely satisfied with the final result as some of my Photoshop work could have been a bit better - particularly the rather dodgy beards - but I think it’s pretty good, and I enjoyed working on it. Now I just have to wait and see what mark it gets…
Tags: work