With regard to practice . .
My aim is to suspend the image (increased in size to about 420cm x 297cm) from a ceiling and use light to project the images of cutout flying birds onto the environs, i.e. floor, walls, other areas of the ceiling, etc. First consideration: In order to simulate flying, I thought that cutting the image into squares and suspending each portion, the pieces would naturally *move*, each in its own little orbit.
Second consideration: When working with negative/positive space imagery, the major challenge is securing against the loss of negative space when it is surrounded by positive space. In other words, when I remove the birds, the defining land-locked negative space is removed as well. So it becomes a first-priority necessity to make all the negative space (what is blue) connect together as one shape.
To realise these two considerations, this is what happened next:
My son said to me: why cut the image into squares? His common sense question perfectly high-lighted the futility of patiently trying to construct a pile of over-complicated nonsense. He theoretically solved the objective of creating *movement* by shifting the responsibility of that aspect of the installation. Instead of separate segments providing movement, that quality could be created by a rotating light fixture. With this change of focus, I removed the grid, but maintained the background as one shape. As I often do, I go backward to go forward. Here is the most recent version of the piece: