Coming up with an idea for this project was really difficult for me. When it comes to art, I always struggle with feeling too cliche, too predictable, or too overdone. Light art is a completely new area for me so researching all the options and history behind it left me feeling overwhelmed.
I decided to bring it back to basics. What do I think of when I think of light? I think of the French phrase “Fermez la Lumière” which directly translates to “Close the light” but is used colloquially as a means to say “Turn off the light.”
Further exploring this idea of closing lights, it made me think about the night sky. A wondrous source of natural light which is often a unique sight of beauty to behold. This made me think of how light can have a negative effect by washing out other sources of light, specifically light pollution.
Being an avid fan of hiking and the outdoors, I often find Worcester a bit stifling to not be able to look up at night and always see a clear sky of stars.
This is an example of what I wish I was seeing every night.
This is an example of how light pollution varies the further you get away from cities.
This picture of an old fashioned camera exemplifies what I would like to accomplish by putting a very dark piece of cloth over the viewer of the art to totally immerse themselves in in the light. Ideally, the cloth will be covering a large box which will be painted to look like the night sky.
An example of what a side of the box would be, except it would be painted to look like stars with twinkling LED’s.
In each of the painted bright stars will be a twinkling LED light. However, in the center of the box will be an additional light source, most likely a light bulb. This light bulb represents the light pollution in the sense that when that light is on, you won’t be able to notice the beauty of the stars. It will mostly likely even be uncomfortable for the viewer. The light source will either be on a dimmer or with some sort of switch set up so that the view is able to see how the starts visibility increases with each increment. Possibly something more mechanical to be covering the light source, but at this point I think a dimmer makes the most sense.
This will encourage the viewer to “close the light” more often in order to reduce light pollution and create a more visible night sky for everyone.