My current plans for this project are vague artistically, but I have a good idea of the type of technology I would like to implement. I plan to have some type of sculpture, made from clay, laser-cut wood, or some other medium. This sculpture will be hollow, with many small holes cut in the surface. Inside the sculpture I’ll put some powerful light source, which will project through the holes and onto the surrounding walls and ceiling of the space the sculpture is in. I also want to have a simple motorized blind that will spin around the light source, selectively blocking parts to add dynamic twinkling or dimming to the projected light spots. I do not plan for the sculpture to be interactive besides turning it on and off, as I don’t really want to use any controllers or software besides the minimum needed to control a simple motor.

Artistically, my goal for the project is to create a sculpture that creates its own environment using light. If placed in an empty room or corner, it will project patterns onto its surroundings that are integrated into the art itself – like a starry sky above a forest, or

Possible Features / Areas of Uncertainty:

• The shape of the sculpture itself – something that fits well inside of the space it’s creating. Maybe a crystal or tree form.
• The addition of colored film to the blind, to change the colors of the light spots.
• The shape or pattern of the blind, to obscure light in the most aesthetically interesting way.
• The shape of the holes – depending on the strength of the light source and the size of the sculpture, I may be able to project more complex shapes.
  

Artist Questions:

• What should I use for a light source?
  • It needs to be very bright and must be a single point to create the best effect. It also must be omnidirectional (like a light bulb and not a flashlight). Can I get some kind of super-bright single LED?
  • What is the easiest way to connect it and the motor (likely using very different amounts of power) to a central power switch/cable?
• What would be the best material to make this out of?
  • Ideally, I would like to make some sort of armature underneath and then cover it in clay. I could also use laser-cut wood, but that would give less room for physical manipulation and design in exchange for more precision. What other materials might be good to consider?

Prototype / Mockup

While I am still not sure of the artistic direction of the project (that will be the hardest part), I wanted to create some kind of proof-of-concept of the technology. At first, I was planning on simply placing a cube, cut out of paper and with holes punched or cut in it, over my desk lamp with a standard LED lightbulb. This is the result:

While it looked nice, it didn’t project anything onto the ceiling as the light was too diffuse. So, I took apart a different LED bulb I had around:

Once this was installed in the lamp, it made a much nicer projection! It also came with the bonus of creating a ring of points for each hole, due to the 12 LEDs in the bulb. I am not sure if this is desirable. Additionally, there is still a large amount of light diffusing through the paper. This will not be an issue in the final product, as long as it is made of something that blocks light more completely like clay or a painted surface.

Finally, I decided to try something more complicated, and made a sort of obelisk shape that I poked many small holes in with a pushpin. Mounting that on the lamp, I found that the combination of the smaller holes and the lack of any upwards-facing faces meant that the points of light were much dimmer compared to the diffused light through the paper:

These mock-ups don’t include the blind, as I don’t have easy access to the materials needed to set that up and I wanted to keep it more basic to start. Those prototypes will have to be made later, when I have a better idea of the final shape of the interior of the sculpture.