Sarah-Jane Palmer


For the 12x12x12 project I have decided to focus on animating a portrait of Harry Brearley, the inventor of stainless steel which was discovered by Harry in 1912, at the Brown Firth Laboratories in Sheffield. 



About Harry:

'Brearley was born in Sheffield, EnglandHis life had humble beginnings as the son of a steel melter. He left school at the age of twelve to enter his first employment as a labourer in one of the city's steelworks, being transferred soon afterwards to the post of general assistant in the company's chemical laboratory.
For several years, in addition to his laboratory work, he studied at home and later in formal evening classes, to specialize in steel production techniques and associated chemical analysis methods.
By his early thirties, Brearley had earned a reputation as an experienced professional and for being very astute in the resolution of practical, industrial, metallurgical problems. It was in 1908, when two of Sheffield's principal steel making companies innovatively agreed to jointly finance a common research laboratory (Brown Firth Laboratories) that Harry Brearley was asked to lead the project.
Brearley died in 1948, at Torquay, a coastal resort town in Devon, south west England. He is buried at Sheffield Cathedral.'

The Bank Street area is known in Sheffield for its historical ghost walks and hauntings of Sheffield's past. This has inspired the creation of this new piece of work as I am attempting to bring Harry Brearley to life through animating his portrait with subtle changes to his facial expressions gradually fading every 12 seconds, 12 fps to 12 expressions. I plan to project his portrait as a ghostly image on the gallery wall.

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