Concept 1: Water Box
This concept uses streams of water and high-frequency light to create still frames of water flow. This would work on similar mechanics as Jeff Lieberman’s Slow Dance (shown below). However, there are currently some problems with the idea because the frequency would be around 4 Hz to be able to clear all the water to make a new frame but this would require at least 60 Hz to not be able to notice the flashing lights.
With these constraints, I think this piece would turn out very differently than the concept, but I am still interested in doing something with water. Some other ideas I have are a mist screen and some way to control the speed of the mist to match the frequency of light.
I was also thinking of a laminar sheet of water that has a little blocker on a linear slider so that you can draw sine waves and stiff in the water sheet. The only problem with this one is that its a step removed from “light art”
Concept 2: Chasing
This concept is arguably not light art but it is something that I really want to work on so I’m including it anyway. This is a work that I started a long time ago when I was staying with a friend of mine who has a pretty cool artist shop.
The idea is a kinetic wire sculpture inspired by Arthur Ganson. Two small birds flap around a circle about 1/4 of a turn apart, The bird in the front will flap at a leisurely pace like the one in the video, and then the bird in the back will flap twice as fast. The birds represent the feeling of always chasing something that you will never catch. The hopelessness of this feeling is something that I am experiencing now and am drawn to complete the piece.
This term, I would work on creating some of the tools required to make gears and other wire-bending fixtures that I was able to use at Arthur’s shop, as well as building the top half of the piece.
Questions:
How can I use light more in these concepts?
What problems do you foresee with the water concepts?
I am trying to decide between Concepts one and two, Do you have any inputs on which is more interesting?
I really like Chasing, but I don’t know how to make it fit the scope of the class.
I think that the second concept is really cool and it would be possible to implement a “light art” aspect into it. You could explore EL wire and line the planes with EL wire. Or you could possibly attach am LED to the planes and then have it flicker/change colors depending on the speed that each plane is travelling.
I like the idea of attaching light to the birds. maybe I could add a sense of personality or emotion into the sculpture with that by mimicking a heartbeat or something.
The water idea is really cool! Even if you had a sort of fountain that you remade to simply drop water down before picking it back up with LEDs cross sectioning the water on it’s trip down, it could still be pretty cool to see how the water interacts with the light.
For Chasing, I think the implementation of light is as hard or easy as you want it to be. You could simply outline things with El Wire to make it glow, or you could make sure you have control over what the wire does in order to enhance the feeling you’re trying to convey from the project. By having a pulsing light on each of the birds, you could emphasis the calmness and franticness difference. You could also set lights outside on the rings, and use them to give off a simple colored hue that you feel fits the theme or setting of the piece!
I like the idea of an external passive light source. I think there is a power to the simplicity of the wire sculpture. It feels very mechanical and raw. I think it could be interesting to pick how to light the sculpture veryvarefully.
I really like both ideas. I think implementing the water into the piece could be tricky in the sense of making sure to keep the electronic components away from the water, but at the same time still interacting with them.
If you had the ability to add EL Wire to the birds, or could have a ring of LEDs chase at the same speed of the birds, I think that it could work as a piece of light art!
Maybe you could different colored LEDs that produce different colors from the water? Or even try to dye the water, and keep the streams separate. Either way, I love the idea of using water in your project!
For chasing, you could have the birds revolve around something in the middle, for example a light up sun/heart.
For the mist/water idea, I don’t fully grasp the idea, but it sounds pretty unique.
Water can be a very beautiful medium. I’m definitely intrigued by the time-bending possibilities afforded by strobing, like in Jeff’s piece. Mist also could be really unique and interact with light in interesting ways. The challenges I foresee are mostly around the engineering work required to control water emission and manage storage and flow in a portable artwork.
As I think you know, I’m a big Ganson fan as well. The bird piece is quite lovely. I agree with your comment above about its simplicity, and I’m not sure it really needs any additional lighting. That said, if you decide to go with this one, I’d encourage you to try to find a way to have the lighting element enhance “the feeling of always chasing something that you will never catch.” One idea that I had would be to add a cyclical lighting pattern, suggesting the passage of another day with each revolution the birds make.
I loved the chasing one and also has a lot of room to make a bigger room to implement some LED or EL Wires!
Very unique ideas! How about for the second piece, since you’re already using a lever, you create a hand-crank mechanism with a motor to light up an LED light source and cast a flying bird shadow?