I spent this week putting everything together, breaking it down, then setting it back up on campus in the lab.
I ended up saving most of my lighting-work for this week, which was likely a mistake. I had tested how much work I could get out of each strand of lights I was using, but hadn’t set them down and worked them around the piece until a couple days ago. As it turns out, 50 feet of lights isn’t as big as it sounds when you work with 18 cubic feet of space and have to double back when you drape it down without touching the base. I was also looking online for an umbrella that could realistically fit on a 2-foot square, but that was fruitless, so I ended up working the lights in and around a large boot.
I ended up doing a lot of work with what I had on hand: the lights are all taped onto the frame and base (mostly because I need to be able to take the lights off after we’re done), and I used tissue to diffuse light to a pretty good effect. If there’s one thing I would have liked to do better, it would be the size of the frame. I probably would have been better off cutting off another foot or two, freeing an upwards of 6 or 8 feet of lights to drape down. As it is now, I worry I may look sparse.