Light Art 2016

Super late – My apologies

 

The first idea I have is for a TRON motorcycle. I like my motorcycle and would like to add EL tape and wire as well as LED’s to it. I could wire it up so that the lights would change depending on the RPM or MPH of the bike as well as other user inputs. To go along with that I would like to add EL tape and wire to my gear to complement the aesthetic. I could wire up lights on the jacket to flash with turn signals and brake lights for added safety as well as wow factor.

The next idea is a spinning LED ball. The idea is that there is a lattice of LEDs that spin along an axis. That entire armature then also spins around another axis perpendicular to the original axis. By varying the speed of the rotations and flashing the LEDs, you can create some very cool effects.

Finally I could do a silhouette shadow installation like Jim Campbell. It could see the people viewing it and replicate their shadows on the installation.

Construction Day 1

April 2, 2016

Cameron back

in order to acomidate my schedule with other classes, and to minimize appartment messes from the project, I have decided to take one day each weekend to work solely on the Flash EL suit project. the first day of work took place this past weekend, and took a total of 12 hours of work to complete.

I began on by first measuring myself to know my exact torso dimensions all the way around, then I turned the jacket inside out, and pinned the torso to fit these dimensions. I then sewed these gaps shut, and put it back to right side out, and was left with a jacket of the proper torso thickness. nice and tight, like the flash’s suit.

Figure 1.1  fitted jacket

I then moved on to the chest vinyl pieces. much like my previous work in the Green Arrow suit, I began taking pieces of vinyl fabric and cutting it into shapes for decoration of the suit. I went with the original design I revealed in my last post, and was left with an interesting design by the time I was done.

I would first start by measuring the chest of the suit, and determining the dimensions and shape of each piece, then would trace it out on the back of the fabric. I would then trace out tabs on the edges, and cut it out with the tabs sticking out. Then I just had to fold the tabs over, pin them to the back, and sew along the edges to “hem” the sides for a more professional look.

         

Figure 1.2  heming the sides           Figure 1.3   early padding

I started on the chest, then worked on some of the back padding from the initial sketches. I then covered the bottom of the suit, and left room for further improvements by NOT sewing the padding on yet. Instead I will continue pinning each piece on one at time, since this project requires very precise layering of the different padded pieces, and may need design changes mid way through, which will not be possible if they are each sewn on immediately.

Figure 1.4 Day 1 frontal          Figure 1.5 Day 2 back

Looking ahead, I would like for the suit to resemble more of the ‘Injustice: Gods Among us’ version of the flash than its original design had, since the design is starting to take physical shape more in that direction. I would also like to be able to cover up the zipper with a button-attachable chest piece, since I do not really like the way it looks with the large gap along the zipper. the following is my newest design plan, and will be the template I plan on using for this upcoming weekend’s work.

Figure 1.6    Design plan 1

Figure 1.7    Design plan 2

Figure 1.8    Injustice Flash

 

 

My artist presentation was done on Chul Hyun Ahn. He was born on January 15, 1971. He’s from Busan, South Korea and graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art. He’s known for installation art, sculpture, and light art. Ahn says he sits apart from other light artists because his objective primarily pertains to the creation of space, or rather illusion of space. Ahn’s main element of showing his art work is the one-way mirror. He calls the mirrors, “the barbershop-mirror effect.” He only uses fluorescent lights. He has a few different art series like the forked, vertical, mirror, and etc. Some of his art work is shown below.

My first project idea is to create a Tin Can Lantern. I would take an old recycled tin can and spray paint the can and use a drill/nail to cut out different shapes and patterns. I plan to use some type of lighting system that would make the wholes reflect a shade/shadow, but I am not sure with I am going to use for lighting right now. But the project would come out looking like something, shown in the picture below.

My second project idea is to create a Mason Jar Solar Lantern. I would buy a glass jar and super glue marbles to the outside of the jar. The marbles would light once the solar cap gets enough sunlight. If I can not do the solar cap I will find another way to light the marbles. When the marbles light up it will make a light reflection, shown in the picture below.

My third project idea is shown below. I don’t really know what it is, but I found it online and it looked really cool. Looks like its made with string and has some type of light shining on it. But if I were to do this project I can either make it with string or I can use LED lights to make different patterns.

For my project I would like to make a three dimensional EL wire sculpture of a dinosaur. I will achieve the volumetric shape by using rings of light. I want combine different colors of El wire to give detail to the dino. The structure would be make out of steel wire which means that the piece should be poseable and I may be able to put a motor in the head so that it can move. The sculpture will be hooked up to a sound based inverter so that the brightness will vary with music and noise. I can also do a bunch of different variations such as using a sequencer to cycle through different parts. Alternatively I could use two different sound inverters with different thresholds so that different parts react differently. I know I want to do the sculpture but I’m still not sure about what effects I want to go for and what size it should be.

For my project, I would like to create a character costume which applies EL wire and related electronics to enhance its design.

for this project to be as cost effective as possible, I preemptively purchased several different vinyl (leather-like) fabrics and materials. All were purchased based on their cost and availability before arriving back on campus for this term. These include:

• 1 yard Dark red vinyl
• 1 yard Deep red vinyl
• 1.5 feet Goldenrod vinyl
• .5 yard Thin yellow lining
• Sound sensitive EL wire pack
• Red base jacket and pants

The total cost is estimated to be: ~= 28 $ fabric + 30$ suit = 58$

So when choosing characters for the costume, I had to make sure the choices would be close enough to the chosen color scheme first. This narrowed down the search significantly. Then, after searching through tons of artwork, and comic book material, I chose to make my costume after the Flash.

Specifically, my plan is to use the EL wire and related sensors, to make the lightning designs around the suit illuminate in reaction to sound and/or speed (as shown above).

Choosing this particular character is a good choice, since in the past, there have been no recorded costumes at comic conventions at this level, other than the flash tv show replicas sold online.

my suit will be of much higher quality than anything seen before, and will be 100% unique in its design. It will also showcase elements from several of the character’s previous designs. having been around since 1940, the flash has seen tons of faces, designs, and incarnations over the past 75 years.

My current design is shown bellow, and pays tribute to several of these designs, while keeping in mind the limits of the EL wire and other hardware needed.

These designs are not final, but I hope to begin work on the suit very soon, and can not wait to show you all more!

My project ideas all revolve around using blown sugar. Although I’m not exactly sure what I will be doing yet, there is a lot of room for experimentation. Color can be mixed into the sugar, or directly painted on, or a sugar of a different color could be added to the outside. Patterns could also be carved into the sugar globe with a hot knife. I am going to add LED lights into the sugar globes and play around with the effects. Here is a picture of blown sugar globes, which would be my starting point.

Picture from http://sugarturntable.com/?p=266

My first project idea was to create a set of RGB keyboard profiles that could react to how a user types. For example, pressing a key could result in the key lighting up and then slowly fading, or pressing a specific key can cause the rest of the lights on the keyboard to ripple in response. The concept is simple but creating keyboard profiles requires a specific set of software that while powerful, can be confusing and will present a challenge in using the software to its full potential.

My second idea would be creating a prop that uses light, like a wand or staff. The prop would be created of a light sculpting material like paperclay, and would have LEDs wired internally that can be switched on or off, and arranged in order to create a visually interesting design. The resulting piece could be inspired by an already existing design, or a new concept. Finding some specific parts for some designs may be difficult, and it will be important to avoid a design that is too simple.

My third idea would be to create a lantern- this could range from a more complex design, to something simple but dynamic, like a lantern that changes color depending on the weather. The lanterns would probably use LEDs as a light source, but in more dynamic versions would most likely be supplemented with an arduino or raspberry pi that can process the data needed.

To develop an idea for my project, I began by thinking of many small ideas as potential requirements for my final project idea. Some of these ideas were to build a sculpture that would use math to produce changing light patterns, to control light based on music, include a motor to make the sculpture kinetic, to use water or some other fluid in the project, and to use a ball bearing to reflect light.

I started feeling inspired after thinking of the idea to base my project around a certain LED part. The part is a 24 RGB LED NeoPixel Light Ring, which Adafruit sells. Images of the ring are below, and it can be found at https://www.adafruit.com/products/1586.

The first idea that I thought of was to mount refractors around the ring to refract the light onto a single point that is a certain height above the center of the ring. Below is a diagram of the idea.

I later though of a more complicated idea. My second idea called “Rotating Tower” is to place a cylinder that extends upwards from the center of the light ring. A motor would be used to rotate the cylinder. The cylinder would have parts extending out from it that would interact with the light, which is projected upwards around the cylinder from the ring. I then thought of the idea of building a structure around the cylinder. Here are diagrams of the idea with and without the structure:

Finally, I thought of several additional ideas, which are not fully developed yet. Here are the additional ideas:

• Add a sensor to detect the current angle of the cylinder.
• Add a knob for the viewer to change the behavior of the lighting and movement of the sculpture.
• Add a feature that releases stored water as vapor to reflect light.
• Use dripping water to trigger lighting effects.

 

The first project idea, ‘Ripple LEDs’, that came into my mind was programming a LED array so that it behaves as a simulated water surface. For example, touching of the the LEDs would create a ripple effect that will eventually die down while stroking a line of LEDs would produce spreading trails of ripples as in the case of a boat cruising through a lake. For input side for sensing, capacitive, proximity, or even pressure sensing will be considered. As simple as it sounds, this project can present challenges in areas such as programming the ripple and trailing effects and managing sensor data from each LEDs. It can also be expensive since each LED will have its own sensor and a moderate size LED array would be necessary to capture the ripple effect of water.

The second project is called ‘Dancing Shards’, which is a forest of shattered glass fragments light by LED light strips on a wooden pane. The LED strips will be programmed to change color and brightness based on the frequency spectrum of music input coming from an audio source and each shard will represent a certain amount of frequency bin of the data. A microcontroller such as Arduino will be used to manage the audio data and drive the shard LED strips. There is a video on YouTube about making the light shards and it’s shown below.

The last idea, which perhaps is my most favorite one, is ‘Ferrofluid Lights’. I got inspired about this idea through a YouTube video showing how ferrofluid mixed with glow stick substance creates very interesting and amazing patterns with changing magnetic field. As opposed to creating the changing magnetic field by hand, my idea is to build an array of mini vibration motors to create a vibrating surface, on top of which small round magnets will lie. Similar to the second project idea, the input to these motors will be the frequency spectrum of music from an audio source and each motor will represent a certain amount of frequency bin of the audio data.