These panels were an extra exploration.  They are investigating one of the ideas I have for my final installation which has been discussed on here in other posts.  I learned a great deal from doing this exploration and have since updated my thoughts and ideas of kinetic joints and materiality.  It began as an investigation of how to hang individual panels from one another such that as one is lifted, it informs the one above it and it the one above it, etc.  The resulting panels manifested themselves in found materials, the larger opaque being a grey museum board the second being 1/8″ acrylic.  I used the laser cutter to render a halftone pattern of a radiolara on the overall panels and experimented with using the film on the acrylic as a mask for painting.  The radiolara image was chosen as it begins to inform its own pattern, but when viewed as a whole it still is rendered as something nearly indistinguishable.  The resulting panel is very evocative as you experience at it perpendicularly the pattern almost fades, but as you begin to move obliquely the pattern begins to emerge and give a greater depth.

These panels failed in their final state, however, as they failed to move freely.  This is due to the threads of the bolts catching the edges of the museum board.  I need to sit down again and reevaluate the connection between the panels and how each will inform the movement of its neighbor.

In parallel with these ideas, I have been exploring an interlocking pattern that could be cut and notched together to create orbs that could be lit from within.  As a precedent I have looked at projects from PROJECTiONE (LightForms) who have done a similar thing.  I have been able to write a Grasshopper definition that will panelize the surface with the desired geometry, but have not been able to find the geometry that would allow me to connect both along lines of latitude and longitude yet will still allow movement when “squished” or elongated.

changingLight

This video shows the dynamic nature of a screen and how the manipulation of that screen can effect light.  The screen is manipulated using an Arduino and the Firefly plugin for Grasshopper.  This movement bends the paper allowing the slits to open and close according to the radius of the bend.  The tighter the radius, the more open the slits, allowing more reflected light to spill through.  Due to the continued use of the screen, it is beginning to show signs of creasing, making it so that it does not bend in a uniform curve but rather it folds creating nonuniform apertures.  I am currently working on the script that will allow me to manipulate a surface by pulling one face of the surface in a specified direction.  This one move would translate itself to the surrounding faces, creating a rippling effect or an undulating surface that can begin to define space.

The input data that would be reflected in this movement would result from space habitation.  The longer someone lingers in a space the more the surface would respond, either moving downward to engage them or moving upward, resulting in a draped surface.  This would begin to map a similar data set that Jeff Maas and I are exploring in our installation in the Library (visuaLatency).  As an independent object in space, the Arduino would have to stand alone, processing the data and performing the manipulation natively.  In a short term study, the object could be tethered to a computer running Grasshopper, which would allow a different data set to be applied, be it a shading study from Ecotect or environmental data from Pachube.  This would allow the user to directly interact with the canopy, allowing an infinite amount of variations and studies to occur.

AssignmentTWO allowed me to take my ideas and findings from AssignmentONE and push them further into reality.  I began experimenting with panels that can bend and move, trying to find a form or cut that allows freedom of movement without excessive hardware.  In these panels I was investigating the wash of light either from direct lighting or from reflected light.  I feel that to an extent all of them were successful, however, I do not feel that any of them accomplished what I had hoped.  I have since gone and tried another type of construction to allow more movement.

This exercise brought up a lot of questions for me and answered a few questions.  For my final project I am leaning towards an installation in the 4th/5th floor light well, however, I do not feel that the quality of light in that space is very conducive to manipulation.  My changing light final assignment is a video investigation the change of light within that space, so I know exactly what I am working with.  It would also be beneficial for me to build a digital model of the space which would allow me to do day lighting studies in Ecotect.

Regardless of the quality of light that is available in the space, I can still manipulate my project to provide light instead of manipulating natural light.  We shall see.