Concept #1
My first concept I have decided would require a bit too much money and time to create for this class, but I still love the idea so I’m including it. Maybe someone else will get another idea from it, so it’s worth sharing.
I wanted to use Chul-Hyun Ahn’s style of infinity mirrors and strategic use of one way mirrors with those tubes of light. For my concept, I would probably use LED strips with diffusers around them, because I would need to be able to control the individual LEDs.
I would create a small hexagonal room, like if you were to just join 6 doors together. On the ceiling of the tiny room would be a true mirror, the ones where you are not looking at a mirrored version of yourself but a mirrored version of that. It is a “mirror” but you can look into the same eye you are looking with, which you can’t do normally.
All of the walls inside would be mirrors, and possibly a few layers deep of some one way mirrors so the reflection of the person inside the room would not be shown.
The LED strips would vertically line all six corners of the room. The idea was to have each LED strip send down one “drop” of light falling from the ceiling, not in sync but at different times than each other.
With the infinity mirror effect, and the LEDs sending down the flashes of lights, the goal was to have it look like you were standing in the middle of a rainstorm of light.
Concept #2
My second concept is one that I got way more excited about once I got more into it.
A little while back, I kept seeing pictures of chicken wire sculptures made to look like a life sized person. From a distance, the wire gives the effect that there is a person there but they appear almost like an apparition, partly translucent.
That in itself is kind of an optical illusion, but thinking about mirrors and lights and tricks of the eye got me excited to incorporate that in a larger way as well.
The plan right now is to make a wire sculpture, not sure if chicken wire would be better or just plain wire, of a person sitting with their head in their hands. There will be water dripping from their head, but if I set up a strobe, I can have the strobe light make the water appear as if it’s dripping upwards.
The sculpture would be sitting in a small puddle of water, to make it look like the water droplets are actually coming from a water source.
A modification idea I had for this would be to add some clear coat over the wire sculpture so I could fill it with more water than it is sitting in, so the water falling upwards will make viewers think that it is filling the person with water.
Instead of just having a strobe set up somewhere near the piece, I thought it might also be cool to incorporate it into the piece instead of setting it up to just be a tool. This may depend on how strong/large of a strobe light I would need, but my thought was to have it sitting in a partially “shattered” sphere of clear plastic, like it broke and that is why the sculpture is crying.
Currently, I’m thinking the size of the sculpture wouldn’t be more than one foot in height, length, and width. I have experience with sculpting in clay, but I have never made a wire sculpture before, so I don’t want to go too big.
Artist question: would it be better to have this sculpture sitting in the open, with a very short container to hold the water, or have it sitting in a clear acrylic box?
If it was sitting in the open people could touch the water droplets, and it is a really weird experience to have your eyes and body both experiencing conflicting things simultaneously. Seeing the water floating upwards but feeling it falling down and hitting your hand is surreal, but I also don’t want to encourage touching the sculpture if it is delicate and it would also give it a cool look if it was encased in a glass box.
The upward-dripping water trick is a great idea! If you can get your hands on a good strobe light and a water pump that can drip at a reliable rate, you could do very well with this.
The cover might be *necessary* – I vaguely remember reading that a key to making the illusion work is having a matte background that prevents the strobe effect from being too obvious or irritating to the eye. If that’s true, you may want to look into having a dark backdrop for the piece, or even only leaving one side open in a dark box. As far as the base of the piece goes, I think having the whole thing sit in a shallow tray would be the most visually appealing and easiest to manage as you work on it.
Also, I don’t know what it takes to make one of those chicken wire sculptures – but if you’re pressed for time, I think a flat wire silhouette of a person would work just as well.
The idea of water droplets going upwards is fantastic! (so is the first idea too, but I can see why you decided to go for something simpler) I wonder how you thought of it — is there any inspiration you’ve had? For your artist question, it seems that you can just make the wire sculpture and decide if you want the acrylic box later.
My physics teacher in high school actually set up the water droplet/strobe light illusion and I remembered it when I was brainstorming some optical illusions I could incorporate into this project.
I love the water drops going upward idea! I think combining that with a clear coat so the person fills up with water is a really cool idea. Personally, I think having it in a short container so someone can touch the water would be more interesting than a box. Unless you’re planning to leave it somewhere unattended where anyone could touch it, in which case protecting it might be better. If people can put their hand under the water droplets then the placement of the strobe light matters more, so the shadow from their hand doesn’t block the light. Maybe you could have two synchronized strobes, one on the top and one on the bottom.
I really like the idea of the flowing water idea and the way of encorporating light to play a trick on people who look at the piece on the direction of the flow. As a test piece, you could start with a smaller sculpture of the person, or even make a child version of the piece to allow you to start playing around with the water intricacies of the piece.
I think that a short tray with a clear acrylic case over the tray would make it look like a display case, which would give it a cool effect.
The water flowing upward is an awesome idea. I think having the sculpture out in the open in a small container would make it seem more like a fountain. Having it enclosed in an acrylic display case could muffle the sound of the water too. If you find yourself looking for a strobe light too, I’d recommend checking out halloween stores like Party City or Spirit Halloween. I’ve seen adjustable speed strobe lights at them before.
I like the first idea a lot it seems like it’d look really cool to have in front of you . For the second concept I think you should keep it surrounded by the box.
I absolutely love the emotion conveyed in your piece. I think that the pool of water with short acrylic walls would be the best option because it would allow for that unique interactivity. It would be interesting to see how people would interact with the sculpture. Maybe you could add in touch sensors where if the people interacting were to try to comfort the statue in a way the water would stop.
I love the upwards flow idea, very clever! I think being able to touch the water would add a lot to the sculpture, though I agree with others that having a second strobe somewhere to help with preventing shadows might be a good idea.
I love the idea for the “rainstorm of light.” I think this project would be achievable if you built it to a small scale, like a magic box with a peephole.
I had to look up “chicken wire ghost” as that is apparently a thing!
The wire figure with the reverse strobe drops is a very intriguing combination. I don’t have a strong opinion on the aesthetics of a short tray vs. a full enclosure. However, the latter arrangement could be interpreted as the person is upset by their confinement. That’s neither good nor bad, just make sure that connotation fits your concept.
There are several different elements to be figured out here, between wire, container, water, and strobe, so I encourage you to begin experimenting ASAP so that you’ll have time to work out all of those aspects.
Both of these are incredible ideas! I really love your second idea, especially having the water droplets appearing to be going up. I think encasing it in acrylic would be cool as it gives the feeling of the person being trapped and alone in addition to protecting your piece. You also won’t have to refill it with water and avoid things from collecting inside. You would probably want a way to open the acrylic box in case something jostles out of place.
I’ve never worked with chicken wire either. Are there any concerns with rusting? Since its smaller than the example you showed, you may need to find chicken wire with smaller holes to still achieve that apparition-like effect.