On the first day of class, during our 30 minute experimental shadow excursion,  I thought it would be cool to experiment with the translucent nature of trace paper.  I drew a pattern on a piece of paper that attempted to express a concept I have struggled with in the past:  Harnessing randomness and uncertainty.  I blew up the drawing in the copier, scanned it and printed two different versions on trace paper.  By overlaying the images with a slight gap, it created a interesting effect.  Unfortunately, It would not cast a shadow.

The logical next step was to print the same patterns on a translucent material.  This time, using a projector as the light source, I was able to cast a shadow.  I experimented with different surfaces…smooth wall, crumpled trace paper, my face.  All produced interesting effects.  One unintended consequence was the interesting reflections generated of the reflections.  By rotating the “light manipulator,” I could produce green, purple and white reflections.

The next step will be to experiment with cutting and folding paper.  I don’t think the pattern I chose was very successful for this project because the shadows produced are hard to differentiate.  I may choose another design for some of the other panels.