The time-based installation, Pagoda Project, consisted of a computer generated image sequence, projected in 'The Pagoda' Atomic Weapons Research Establishment building, at Orford Ness National Nature Reserve, Suffolk.

The event took place from 10th August to 16th August 2008.

One of the largest naturally formed shingle spits in the world, Orford Ness Nature Reserve is not only important for natural features, rare vegetation, and wildlife, but also for its use as a Ministry of Defence weapons and testing site from the beginning of the First World War to the mid 1980’s. The site was handed over to The National Trust in 1993, with their remit being to conserve and protect the land and wildlife, and to manage public access. The two Pagoda buildings built at the end of the 1960’s were used as test cells for developmental work on the atomic bomb.

My very first contact with Orford Ness felt like stepping onto another planet and a reawakening of the senses. I discovered a stark surface littered with strange, corroding metal objects of unknown identity. I found my mind lingering over the shapes and forms of these decaying Second World War and Cold War artifacts, and creating powerful and original associations.

On many quiet evenings at sunset, I have stood on the viewing platform of the Bomb Ballistics Building, observing the parallel vegetated ridges, and feeling part of a space describing ever repeating patterns of increasing complexity, spanning the limits of perspective.

In contrast to the current bias to non-interventional art-making, where the artist 'disappears', the Pagoda Project is all about considerations of human 'intervention' in a natural space.

The sequential images of the Pagoda Project exist as contour and occlusion lines subjected to simulated forces left to evolve over time. Linear systems are set in motion to evoke a virtual world of shingle ridges, excavation craters, wave action, and light changes. A pared down language was set up to engage the audience in an aesthetic and transporting sense, and evoke the experience of walking through Orford Ness ending up in the Pagoda testing chamber.

To:

make the audience walk through the landscape and bring that memory with them into the pagoda.

find appropriate proportions and scale, top give the projection impact.

reveal the nature of the supporting architecture and fittings, to provoke cross associations

create and event which echoed the original building's function of testing and experimentation

reinforce the feeling of an underground chamber

Installing the Pagoda Project, involved 5 people, and presented a considerable technical challenge. Care was taken not to alter the archaeological structure, hence a steel cabling system served as a frame to tie off the projection screen of 4.1 metres by 2.3 metres. The projector and computer were supported by a platform 2.3 metres high at an optimum 6 metres from the screen. Power was provided by a generator positioned outside as far from the chamber as possible. The effect of blocking off light with tarpaulin altered the nature of the Pagoda's space, which previously still felt exposed to wind and rain. A sense of inky blackness was achieved in this damp foreboding chamber.

"I like the silence"

"Would you have a soundtrack?"

The audience was very aware of where they were through the sound of seagulls and wind around the Pagoda. One person liked the 'silence', which was rather subjective as the computer and generator were quite audible.

"It captures the eeriness and atmosphere of Orford Ness"

"It's like a surveillance film"

The first two visitors were brothers who told me that their mother had worked in this particular Pagoda at the time it was still functioning as a test laboratory. To this day she has refused to describe to them exactly what she did, and declined to accompany her sons to the Pagoda.

"It makes sense after walking through the landscape of Orford Ness"

A key aim of the work was to incorporate the viewer's experience of their walk through the Orford Ness. In fact I made extensive use of aerial maps and original MOD plans of the AWRE buildings.

"You made the building (Pagoda) like science fiction, it was like the film set for Alien."

I had no such intentions, although by design the piece is a trigger for association rather than literal description. There are actually many UFO and ghost stories which have grown up around Orford Ness.

"I felt physically disorientated (at certain points) but I enjoyed that."

The comment about being physically thrown and shaken off balance was pleasing, as it is a specific intention to communicate not just through reading an image, but to connect the eye and body with spatial play.

"I like the way it comes back to the space it's in, and you are able to make out the surrounding walls (and architecture.)"

Several people commented that they were only aware of the visual connection between the building and the film in the closing frames. This was part luck, part intentional, in that I was defining the interaction between the physical projection and the space I was working with.

Something I did learn was the specific way the eye adjusts to extreme differences of darkness and light.

"I noticed and enjoyed the abstract quality of line and pattern"

"Is there a reference to Gustave Klimt?"

It was pleasing to learn that many people enjoyed the purely sensual abstract qualities of the piece, while the lack of literal representation did not seem to be an issue.

"It's impressive and well presented", "It's stunning"

"Will it be shown elsewhere?" "It should be in the Tate"

There was spontaneous enthusiastic applause on several occasions, which was a nice surprise and I was certainly not expecting this!

Ella and Fiona (my project assistants) reported that there was a "real buzz"and a positive feedback from people, both on the Open Day as well as from the groups (of up to 18 at a time) who visited the four daily screenings.

I have made regular trips and stayed on the Island at base camp, since 2005, not only to make work, but to access the archives in the form of aerial maps, surveys, and plans.

Over this time I built up a rapport with Grant Lohoar, Duncan Kent and Dave Cormack of The National Trust at Orford Ness, and benefited enormously from their considerable collective knowledge and invaluable technical support, without all of which this project would not have been possible.

Grant Lohoar - NT Property Manager

"I can make out some of the locations, but I would be interested to check exactly where some of them were"

Duncan Kent - NT Visitor Services Warden

"The sequence with the waves was really beautiful"

Dave Cormack - NT Site Warden

Dave related many stories with a mythical side - including one about a woman visitor to the Pagoda who saw a ghost with moustache wearing a post-war airforce uniform, which prompted research uncovering an incident relating to a security policeman who died from an accidental explosion in the Pagoda and had been standing in the same spot above the pit at end of chamber.

Fiona Long - Wimbledon Art College BA Fine Art Student

"It was a great success and people really loved it. You got some wonderful reactions!"

Ella Lucas - Wimbledon Art College BA Fine Art Student

"Thanks for allowing me to be part of an amazing project. It was a really rewarding experience and I had a great time."

Alan Sewell - Invite and Poster Design

"It's poetic, elegiac and silently moving"

The Pagoda Project was created entirely with SOFTIMAGE XSI. All artwork, photography and text copyright Matthew Roberts except installation shots - copyright Fiona Long and Grant Lohoar.