Kaleidoscope Granton

By Julian Stocks and Maja Quille

Welcome and thank you for picking up one of our kaleidoscopes! Below are a few examples of some of the images that people have made throughout our events over the past couple of months.

Kaleidoscopes are now considered a novelty for children, but when it was first invented by Edinburgh based David Brewster in 1815, it distracted the public so much that you couldn’t walk down a street without seeing people staring into kaleidoscopes and walking into walls from being so immersed in the new invention!

In spite of their almost magical quality, kaleidoscopes are essentially very simple - just 3 mirrors stuck together, reflecting each other.

We hope you will have as enjoyable a time with your kaleidoscope as we have. You can take amazing photographs through it of anything or anywhere you like, but we would like to encourage you to take it with you on a walk around Granton and share it with us. If you need somewhere to start, this route developed by Granton Hub can be started from Granton Station and goes past some fascinating places in Granton. 

The kaleidoscopes are fun on their own, but if you would like to try your hand at taking some amazing images, we have included the following guide:

Guide to success - a few suggestions

  1. Taking photos through the kaleidoscope is really quite easy. Align the viewfinder with the opening of the kaleidoscope and snap away. The closer the object you photograph is to the kaleidoscope, the more even the reflected pattern. But make sure to let light in to stop the image being too dark.

  2. If you want to photograph a place, but cannot make the reflections align because it is too far away, a good way to do it is to team up with someone else with a phone and turn it into a lightbox: 

  • Take a photo of the place 

  • Open the image and display it on the phone screen 

  • Place the kaleidoscope on top of the image.

  • Take a photo of the photo through the kaleidoscope using the second phone

We have had a wonderful time working with some of the amazing people in Granton since April, making kaleidoscopes and taking photos.

The images have helped shape the design for our potential new sculpture for the Granton Gasholder park and will continue to influence our work moving forward. The sculpture is going to look something along the lines of this: 

Community engagement and local heritage has been at the forefront of every stage of the process and will continue to be so throughout the project cycle. 

Building on the findings from our phase one community engagement, research and site visits, we have settled on a concept that tells the story of the past, present and future of Granton as told by those who make it their home.

The finished artwork will be in the shape of a geometric steel sculpture, inspired by the historic links to lighthouses in the area. A steel cube balanced on its point, the shape references the gasholder structure as well as the trestle-like frame of the Granton lighthouse windows, ensuring that it is in keeping with the site and creating interesting sight-lines through the structure, which will frame the work when seen from different angles.

Our focus in developing the programme has been to create real and lasting impact and to involve people in meaningful ways to create a positive artwork that resonates beyond its physical presence. 

Each side of the sculpture will be covered in a unique pattern, developed in collaboration with different community groups and abstracted through a kaleidoscope. This is one of the underlying themes of the project; to offer a new and unexpected view of the area, seeing history and the familiar through a new lens. The patterns will be based on six historic and contemporary local themes, identified through our phase one research and engagement.

  • The Granton shrimp-bed fossils

  • Paper making and esparto grass

  • The early electric car

  • Lighthouses and the Fresnel lens

  • Local flora and biodiversity

  • Forms of energy - Transition into a Green future

When light shines through the pattern cut-outs, the shadows will cast a pattern onto the ground and surrounding structures, giving the sculpture reach well beyond its relative size, surrounded by shadows telling a story of past, present and future of the local area. The circular shape of the pattern references the lighthouse fresnel lens, as well as the magic lantern, a precursor to the moving image and an early form of visual storytelling. This results in a positive artwork that lights up Granton and tells a narrative of the people of Granton, created by the people of Granton. 

We’d still love for you to get involved and there are several ways to do this: Get in touch through this site to be kept in the loop of what we’re doing in Granton and when. Follow us and DM us or tag us on Instagram @kaleidoscope_granton or Facebook group Kaleidoscope Granton in an image (or images!) of somewhere or something in Granton that you love, taken through your kaleidoscope. This can be a place, a flower, a rock, the ocean or anything that you like. We would also love few words or sentences about what you value about Granton; it’s history, a personal anecdote, hopes for the future or just what you think is important.

We will share everything you send us (unless you ask us not to) and your images and stories will continue to help inspire and shape our proposed sculpture for Granton.