Earlier today we took a closer look at a special exhibition based around each of the teams travelling to South Africa this summer, by illustrator Elliott Quince. Now, we’ve got another artistic look at the world of football, but from a very different angle. Not just in the style of art, but with the source material as well. David Marsh has undertaken a mammoth project around the 1966 Final entitled Some People Are On The Pitch, mapping the movement of the players in the match and using this information to create seemingly abstract images. The results, which show either the movement of a single player during the game or an entire team, are a mesmerising mix of art, infographics and texture. We spoke to David about his idea, and just how long it took to create – here’s what he had to say…

Where did the original idea for this concept come from?

“I first had the idea a few years ago. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been done. It’s such a famous and celebrated match, yet people (certainly of my generation and younger- I was born in ‘79) don’t really know much about the game. I was interested in trying to ‘freeze’ or immortalise the game in an way which described all of the action at once, but that also abstracted the game into something of beauty, whether you like football or not. I also liked the idea of taking on the concept of being a fan, or being ‘fanatical’. Spending over a hundred hours watching in slow motion a game that you don’t really know, but you know you love, is pretty fanatical!”

What’s your background as an artist?

“This is my first solo exhibition. I’m an architect by profession, but have been involved in many other art projects over the years.”

What footage did you use to build the information from? Was it more difficult considering that the game was over 40 years ago?

“The project was created by watching the original BBC footage of the game in slow motion (at half, or quarter speed). There are far fewer camera angles than there would be today.”

What was the process behind the idea? What did you have to do and how long did it take?

“Are you sitting comfortably?! I watched the game in slow motion (half/quarter), tracking one player at a time, (including the ball, so 23 times in total) and marking the movement of the player in question onto tracing paper. This was overlayed onto a plan drawing of the Wembley pitch, including the stripes of the grass (precisely!) to act as a co-ordinate system to allow me to be as accurate as possible in tracking a player’s movement.
I then split each player into 15minute real-time segments (so eight sheets per player- 3 per half, then one each for each extra time half) to keep the information legible, and to allow me to analyse each section of the match. Each player took a minimum of 4 hours.
The sequence of movement was recorded, so that i could know the direction and precise time of each movement, and make sure everything was coordinated. Then, for the final drawings, a lot of this recorded information was stripped out to abstract the ‘portraits’ of each player for each half, then also to show a full match ‘portrait’ of the ‘actual’ movement (ie where they actually touched the grass) and a ‘positional’ portrait (which basically assumes the teams do not swap ends at each half) to allow the patterns of each player to be read more easily.
The final piece, a full match ‘portrait’ of England v Germany (of the ball, and only when players were in possession) was then hand-stitched onto a canvas from red and black cotton (orange for the ball), the same material as the shirts from the final. Film maker Paul Lucas is making a documentary explaining the whole process, which will form part of the exhibition.

Some of the elements are darker than others, which moments do they signify?

“Thin lines show a player’s movement ‘off’ the ball and the thicker line ‘on’ the ball.”

How many different images have you created from the data?

“In total, 332 images, but the exhibition consists of around 140.”

How do you think they work as a piece of art, divorced from their source?

“Football is oftern referred to as the beautiful game, but it’s rarely represented off the pitch in this way. What I have tried to do is to think of football differently. I liked the idea of trying to simultaneously show an immense level of football information yet also take the ‘football’ out of the work, so that each piece can be read differently by different people- whatever their background.”

What do you think these images tell us about football in 1966? What would be different if they were creating using data from today’s football?

“Where do you start?! The rules were different: no subs, no backpass rule, keepers without gloves, hard challenges on keepers allowed, different formations….
Not to mention the space afforded on the pitch, and the overall pace of the game- the modern game would look very different… watch this space! This project is just the start…..!”

Some People Are On The Pitch
is on display at The Gallery in Redchurch Street, 50 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London, from June 6th to June 13th. For more information, head over to www.davidmarsh.info