Winds of Change

4K digital film with stereo sound commissioned especially for Aberdeen Art Gallery and Spectra 2024.

Premiered as a large-scale immersive installation in the Sculpture Court of Aberdeen Art Gallery as part of Spectra 2024, ‘Winds of Change’ has now become part of the permanent collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Set against a backdrop of Scottish wind farms and the oil rigs at Cromarty Firth, ‘Winds of Change’ journeys through aspects of Aberdeen’s unique maritime and industrial story from tall ships and granite, to oil and the transition towards renewable energy and wind power. The artwork combines video footage and stop frame animation with 3D animated sequences of point clouds created from photogrammetry of key artefacts from the city’s heritage collection.

Throughout time humans have tried to control and harness the power of the wind. The film draws on the folklore of a three knotted rope which was sold by witches to sailors to control the wind whilst a sea. The untying of one knot would release a breeze, the second a strong wind and the third a tempest.

Still from Winds of Change: one of the wind knots

Background Information: We worked with six objects from Aberdeen’s Treasure Hub using photogrammetry and film to capture the form and colour of each artefact. AOC Archaeology undertook the photogrammetry of the artefacts and we used this data to develop the point cloud animations which we have combined with our films of the various artefacts.

The artefacts we worked with at Aberdeen Treasure Hub were:

Granite Clockcase, 1870. Reference to deep geological time and Aberdeen’s granite industry. Classification: Granite Industry. Object number: ABDMS010309.
Ship Model: “Mariner” Fishing Boat, East Coast Type, 1850 – 1880. Classification: Maritime History. Object number: ABDMS003079.
Model Of The Three Masted Barque ‘Elissa’. Originally built in Aberdeen by Alexandra Hall & Co in 1877. Classification: Maritime History. Object number: ABDMS031570.1.
‘Variola’. Model of Whaling Brig. Classification: Whaling. Object number: ABDMS003107.
Model of the Grampian Corsair – standby rescue vessel model. Presented 2009. Classification: North Sea Oil and Gas Industries. Object number: ABDMS077197. This boat is still operating as a safety vessel.
Wind tunnel model of the Brent Charlie oil platform, 1981. Classification: Maritime History. Object number: ABDMS045177. Associated with Brent Field.

Filmed locations: Balmedie Beach, Cromarty Firth, Clashindarroch Wind Farm, Aberdeenshire, Moy Wind Farm, Highlands.

AV Production for Spectra event: Live Events Management and Double Take Projections.