Charlie Brooks
To finish my project and get it ready for presentation, I first had to decide how to suspend my acrylic pieces. I originally wanted to use a clear acrylic, but I found that thin acrylic sheets have too much give and would bounce or sag under any weight, especially when suspended. This led me to use wood for the base of my light painting:
Once I had cut my MDF board into the appropriate sections, I used a drill to make a grid of holes in the center board that I would use to suspend my acrylic and ensure that the pieces were all square to the light. After drilling the holes, I screwed the boards together to get my final base:
I used the laser cutter to cut out an assortment of acrylic shapes in a variety of colors. I had made a preliminary map of the final image, trying to divide it into distinct shapes that I would then cut out. I wanted to cut an excess of shapes so that I would have as much flexibility as possible when assembling my final image. Once cut, I tied strands of fishing line to each piece:
I decided to use small binder clips to quickly hang the acrylic and easily adjust the position/height of each piece. These clips would hold the ends of the fishing line on top of the base:
To make sure that my base didn’t move, I taped it to this small table that I found in the lab. This table also had a groove in the wooden boards that perfectly aligned my flashlight (light source) and made sure it was in the same position each time.
With all of this setup, I just had to spend ~6 hours assembling the acrylic into the proper positions, constantly checking the resulting image and making adjustments. I toyed a lot with which pieces would be closest to the light (which makes their “shadow” larger) and further away, trying to get the scale as perfect as I could.
I think the final image came out nicely. To see that, you’ll have to check out my Final Documentation post….