Exhibition of Installations (2025)
Light On the Watch is an immersive installation developed during a residency at the Docking Station, located in the former Police Section House at the Historic Dockyard Chatham. The project explores the lives of the Dockyard’s police force through interactive artworks that invite audiences to uncover hidden stories within the building.
Research for the work was developed in collaboration with the Chatham Dockyard Historical Society, drawing on newly uncovered archival material, artefacts, and documents. This research was further enriched through a public reminiscence session, where local members of the community shared knowledge and personal connections to the Dockyard’s past. Rather than presenting the material as a traditional historical display, the project focuses on moments of ambiguity, secrecy, and contradiction within these histories.
At the centre of the installation is a projection-mapped scale model of the Police Section House. Viewers can explore the building by activating different interior spaces, each introducing a real historical figure connected to the site.
Three interactive installations reveal individual stories:
Henry Skeates appears as a quiet digital portrait that subtly comes to life when a viewer approaches. A respected Dockyard policeman who secretly joined the illegal National Union of Police, Henry cautiously reveals this hidden act, implicating the viewer in his moment of confession.
Walter James George is presented through fragments of letters, forms, and medical records suspended along a line. Visitors physically move these documents into light to reveal projected text and audio, gradually reconstructing Walter’s tragic story of illness and institutionalisation.
Leonard St Crozier explores the possibility of an assumed identity within the Dockyard police. Visitors investigate a dark projection using a handheld “torch”, revealing fragments of information within the beam of light and mimicking the act of searching for hidden truth.
A final installation, a projection-mapped typewriter listing the names of former residents, acknowledges the many individuals whose stories remain incomplete or undiscovered.
Together these works use intuitive interactions and simple technologies to transform archival research into a physical, investigative experience, inviting audiences to step into the role of observer and investigator within the historic building.
Photos by Tyler Austin
https://austinphotography.myportfolio.com
Special thanks to:
The iCCi and Docking Station team, Alan Sandford and George Hornby along with the whole Chatham Dockyard Historical Society, Louisa Lillie, Andy Millest, Frank Whittaker, Julie Millest, Square Pegs Theatre, Icon Theatre and the team at the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.