Concept 1: Light In Music and Motion
The creation of a marching tuba (sousaphone) bell cover using a grid of programmable LED’s. These Could either be set up so they react to vibration (sound) or programmed to create different light effects.
Concept 2: In The Eyes of Society
This piece is intended to be more thought provoking. For me just the conceptualization has been, in some ways, therapeutic.
The main feature of this piece is a recreation of a famous statue of Artemis/Diana; The goddess responsible for the protection of women. Instead of the stag that would normally be with her left hand she is instead carrying a mirror shield, a reference to the medusa myth; Medusa again being a symbol used in conjunction with the protection of women. This shield is being used to block societies “views” on women’s bodies, which is represented by the backlight which will be shinning on the statue causing florescent paint to light up “flaws” like stretch marks, acne and so on.
Artist Questions
- I’m trying to choose between my two concepts. Both are important to me for different reasons. Which do you think is more interesting?
- Does anyone know how I would approach potentially making my first concept sound reactive?
- Do you think that the meaning behind my second concept will be conveyed? If not how could I make the concept stronger?
The second concept seems a lot more engaging and personal than the first one, but the first one seems pretty cool. TBH you could have Medusa on your tuba cover.
I also like the idea of fluorescent paint and the shield. I’m wondering though, if the shield is blocking the light, how will the fluorescent paint be visible? Will there be other lighting in some way? Is the shield translucent? Will you have viewers shine a flashlight on the flaws and make them ashamed for doing so? (that would be cool)
Also, if the mirror is a mirror shield, will it reflect a beam of light onto something else or someone else?
I like both, and either could turn out well!
If you choose the statue, what would it be made of? How large? It might also be cool to have different colors of paint on the statue, lit up or hidden by different colors of lights – one color more positive and uplifting, and one more negative that reveals the things society latches onto.
The tuba cover also has lots of potential. Wiring up all the LEDs is going to be time consuming, but I can imagine it would look fantastic at night with all kinds of swirling effects playing.
Both ideas are really cool! I think the LEDs on the sousaphone would create a really interesting and dynamic effect. If you wanted to make it more sound reactive, you could set up a microphone and an FFT so you can tell the strength of different frequency bands of the audio. Then you could generate different effects for different sounds, and not just different volumes.
I think your second idea would be a lot more impactful. I like the idea of fluorescent paint for highlights. Will you make the light on the paint static, or activate in response to something? Tarang’s idea of a flashlight would be an interesting way to make it interactive. I think overall your concept would come across pretty well!
Wow, I think both of these ideas are super interesting in different ways. For the first concept, I think the most interesting way to go would be to make it sound reactive, but unfortunately, I have no idea how to do this. For the second concept, I think it could be made stronger by having an alternating light source between the black light from the source in front of the mirror, and then a white light from above, so you can see the “un-flawed” version and the “flawed version” under different light situations.
I really like the idea of creating the reactive sousaphone cover and think that one way you could potentially go about doing this is using an Analog Sound Sensor that is made for different types of microcontrollers and microprocessors. There might need to be some testing in the beginning because of how close to the origin of the sound it would be coming from, but after tweaking it I believe it would be really cool to see how the different tones, pitches and notes all change the colors and patterns of the LEDs.
I agree that the second one has a much deeper meaning, but having a bright visual going along with the tuba sounds more exciting to me personally. I love functional pieces, and especially visuals to go along with music, I feel like most people really enjoy those two going together. Would it cause problems with the sound? Would the tuba still be playable with a cover on it?
For the statue, I think if you emphasize the “flaws” aspect then your meaning will be conveyed pretty well. The shadows cast on the statue would be very dramatic, especially with a single light source, and having the piece rotating is a nice touch.
I like both ideas. Having the lights synching up with the music could create a really fun and dynamic atmosphere. If you could have 2 that light up different colors, It would be cool to see them both going head to head in a music battle. For the second one, would the blacklight be behind the shield ? You mentioned it representing society’s views on body shaming and lighting up “flaws” on the body, but wouldn’t the shield be in the way of the light?
I think the first concept would be more interesting because it mixes light art with an instrument. I bet it will look cool with something for the light to react to.
I do think your message is being conveyed in your second concept
For how to get the first idea to work you could use a microphone (they make small ones for Arduinos and the such) and then map the frequencies (notes) to LED colors, or if you are not big on coding you could buy LEDs that already have sound response built-in and power them off of a portable battery.
I think both of these concepts are pretty interesting! The second is definitely the more thought provoking, but I also like how in the first concept, it requires interaction to work. In a way the player is “making” the art. Like others have said, you could use a microphone and do some processing with an FFT to react to different frequencies of sound too.
As a low-end musician myself, I have to admit I’m biased towards the tuba idea. I imagine that in order not to impede the airflow too much you’d want to make this out of some sort of very wide mesh material. Adafuit has lots of sewable electronic components. Here’s a nice sound-reactive LED tutorial using some of their items that may give you some ideas: https://learn.adafruit.com/trinket-sound-reactive-led-color-organ/build-the-circuit
I really like the second concept! I love the idea of the “flaws” being shown through fluorescent paint. Another interesting approach could be using a blacklight instead of a regular light so the “flaws” are only shown when society (the blacklight) is looking at them.
I think the bow and arrow and clothing will convey that its Artemis but I associate the mirror more with what killed Medusa than Medusa herself. If Medusa herself is associated with the protection of women, is it confusing for Artemis to be wielding what killed Medusa? If you do want to include the mirror, I think it should be incorporated somehow in the light art. Maybe the light can reflect itself in the mirror? Maybe Perseus (or a representation of him) could be holding the mirror and represent society? The light then only showcases the “flaws” when reflected in Perseus’s/society’s mirror.