Light and Shadow Final Project and Summary

Posted on 05/19/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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Final Project

Annotated Bibliography

Matsys Design

http://matsysdesign.com

28 Apr. 2011

Matsys is a design studio started in 2004 by Andrew Kudless. He explores the relationship between biology, the built world and how to fabricate these using computation methods. I was immediately drawn to the Diploid lamp series which explores complex patterns that can be derived from forms found from nature – in this case honeycombs, scales and barnacles. It is very relevant to my studies since I am interested in the use of a simple repeating pattern to create a form that is so complex. Also I find it very interesting that none of the diploid lamps fabricated using glue at all!

James Carpenter Environmental Refractions by Sandro Marpillero

Princeton Architectural Press: NY, 2006

James Carpenter is an architect and sculptor, graduating from Rhode Island School of Design in 1972. He started with the development of new glass materials and worked with their properties to transform light and space. The work that I am particularly drawn to is his structural glass prisms which were installed in the Christian Theological Seminary’s Sweeney Chapel. The result of the bounced light and color onto the wall creates a very spiritual effect which I want to try to explore in my design.

Tazana Co., Ltd

http://www.tazana.com

28 Apr. 2011

Tazana is a company created by a Thai designer and materialist specialist company who believe that design is free for all to interpret making there no wrong or right design. “Tazana” in Thai means “attitude” and to them, it means that anyone can see something and recognize their own meaning from it. Most of their forms are derived from Thai culture and the craftsmanship, which i find these qualities very interesting. Also, I like the idea that most of their lamps start in a very flat form, but when the user lifts them, they reveal their true shape – it may be too early to think of packaging ideas, but this can also translate into a kinetic quality with the user.

Miho Konishi

http://aainter3-net.fromform.net/miho/

28 Apr 2011

Miho Konishi is a student exploring Light Form and her blog documents her works and findings. She works a lot with paper folding and how those forms can start to inform space. I draw inspiration from her works which many seem very similar to mine.

UnFolded: Paper in Design, Art, Architecture and Industry

Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattmann

Birkhauser: Basel

This book is a collection of different artists’ work on the various designs using paper. The work ranges from architectural installations using paper waste material to simple laser cut rings out of card stock. The section I am interested in is Origami in Production and Computational Origami. It is fascinating to me underneath it all, origami is a very mathematical and logical art form.

Poul Henningson PH Artichoke Lamp

http://www.louispoulsen.com/en-us/Product/Pendants/PH%20Artichoke.aspx

29 Apr, 2011

This light fixture was originally designed for a restaurant in Copenhagen. It features 72 “leaves” supported by 12 steel arches and is a 360 degree glare free lamp. The leaves act as shields to the glare and the viewer never sees directly into the inner light source. This luminaire acts as a modern day chandelier and is a popular feature piece to use in many settings.

Dale Chihuly – Rio Delle Torreselle

http://www.chihuly.com/chihuly-over-venice-map-03_detail.aspx

30 Apr, 2011

In 1996 Chihuly – a Seattle glass artist – designed and created 14 chandelier pieces that were installed throughout the city of Venice in Italy. This chandelier was hung over the canal “of the little towers” reminding the viewer of the remnants of a tower that used to belong there connecting the viewer to the history of that particular site.

Tord Boontje

http://tordboontje.com

30 Apr, 2011

Tord Boontje is an artist/designer who draws ideas from nature, layering materials to entice the viewer. He believes that the idea of modernism can be complex instead of just streamlined and minimal and embraces the use of technology in his designs but not in a way that overpowers his work. I am very drawn to the Midsummer lamp. The use of the many layers work to diffuse the light and at the same time still keep the design airy and floaty.

Isamu Noguchi

http://www.noguchi.org/shop/history

3 May 2011

Noguchi was an artist in New York who integrated elements of Japanese art into his pieces. He is known widely for his lighting and paper lamp designs where he utilized traditional construction methods used in the small Japanese town of Gifu. He wanted to express the idea of weightlessness in his designs creating sculptural luminaries.

Aqua Creations Lighting

http://www.aquagallery.com/#/Lighting/Overview

3 May 2011

Ayala Serfaty is the leading designer for this lighting and architectural lighting company. Much of the forms of the light pieces mimic aquatic life and create a sort of ominous yet intriguing quality when placed in a room. I enjoy the odd shapes and form and the sculptural quality to the luminaire pieces.

Towards a Final Project pt. 2

Posted on 05/13/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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So after creating another prototype I was really unhappy with the seam. Using the heavy vellum paper it is really visible and messy to deal with. This is something I’ve been dealing with on all my models and I’m afraid that once I bump up the scale the seam is going to be really really ugly. So I think i’ve come up with a solution. After studying and thinking about the Chihuly chandelier and the idea that it looks like it’s spiraling, I thought what if I made mine out of a continuous strip of paper that spirals? This completely eliminates seams except where I have to join the strips together, but they wouldn’t have to overlap and distract from the form. I think by using this construction method I will be more successful in creating a really sculptural piece.

Towards a final project

Posted on 05/12/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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I have been working on and off today cutting a lantern prototype. I decided to go back to my original idea and look at the forms i was using near the beginning of class instead of going in the direction where I was experimenting with the stars. Dave had mentioned that one of my earlier lamps reminded him of a Chihuly chandelier. A large glass piece that seems to be made out of many little pieces of free formed curled glass tenticles, that seem to spiral and drape all the way down to the floor. I want to somehow create that same effect using smaller cuts and folds and allow the paper to seem to drape and dissolve into the floor. Sort of in the same way Miho Konishi has in her paper exhibition. I will most likely use this heavier vellum paper I found at Columbia Arts supply since I like the glow it creates when a light source is added. I’m not sure yet how large I want to make the chandelier, although maybe I should decide soon…

Dale Chihuly Chandelier

image source: http://www.chihuly.com/rio-delle-torreselle-chandelier_detail.aspx

Miho's paper exhibition

image source: http://www.aainter3.net/miho/

James Carpenter Inspiration Presentation

Posted on 05/12/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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For my inspiration presentation I studied the work of glass sculptor James Carpenter. What drew me to his work is his experimentation on using glass as a medium to perceive the environment in new and different ways. He seems to be more interested in the effects that he is creating on the material instead of thinking of glass as a transparency. With a successful body of work, I only chose 4 that I thought could apply to my project, or simply because I just found them interesting.

Periscope Window – Dayton Residence – Minneapolis Minnesota 1995-1997

An installation in a house to provide privacy and views to the outside using several layers of glass, reflective surfaces and periscopic mirrors. Different effects happen through different times of the day and you are able to see the sky and tree outside in new ways.

image source: http://mw2mw.com/periscope-window

Dichroic Light Field – Millennium Tower – New York – 1994-1995

Installed on the east side of the Millennium Tower to break up the facade, create depth and allow for a more pedestrian scaled environment. Glass tabs were mounted onto a reflective glass surface that change as the sun moves throughout the day, casting shadows from nearby buildings and giving the street a dynamic theatrical effect.

image source: http://www.aiany.org/eOCULUS/2009/2009-05-12.html

7 World Trade Center

Carpenter was commissioned as a consultant for the exterior skin, podium and lobby installation. The exterior skin is mirrored glass and spandrel units with depth creating an illusion that the parallelogram tower disappears into the sky. The podium, which houses large transformers, is 80′ high and allows for air ventilation. To break it down to pedestrian scale, Carpenter and team used a series of metal panels and triangular wires to diffuse and scatter light. At night, the podium glows blue and using a camera tracks the movement of pedestrians, projecting it onto the 80′ high podium. The lobby is a series of large luminescent panels with quotations scrolling through the inside and can be viewed from the outside.

image source: http://wirednewyork.com/wtc/7wtc/

image source: http://www.jets.org/_delete/1106/extreme_engineer.htm

image source: http://www.greenbuildingsnyc.com/2009/07/08/leasing-activity-continues-at-leed-gold-certified-7-world-trade-center/

Fulton Transit Shelter – New York – 2004

The glass atrium – whose form mimics the rotation of the earth is designed to reflect light into the dark tunnels below. The oculus allows the users to follow the path of the sun throughout the day.

image source: http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_55/fultonsubwaydesign.html

Peer Review

Posted on 04/28/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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I’ve been a fan of Geoff’s work and am always interested in whatever new experiments he is doing. It seems that he has chosen two similar forms to work with: a simple screen where triangular cuts are made that change in aperture as the screen is bent, expanding and contracting to filter different amounts of light; and a square module that is connected at the edges to create a scalloped form that reflects light and can also be bent. Both have much potential in defining space and filtering light. Adding a kinetic quality to the pieces also would connect the user to the space on a different level.

I do agree with him, in that the space where he will be installing his final project, manipulation of the light available there would be difficult. A much more concentrated piece, a giant luminaire that would respond and interact with users would be much more manageable. I’m not quite sure how easy or difficult it is to build a mechanism or frame for the object, but it would be interesting to see the luminary not only move in one direction, but along several axis. Maybe expand and contract in response to the actions of the observer. In one of his posts he mentioned PROJECTiONE (lightforms) where they have developed a module that interlocks with each other to create a luminaire. The orbs are beautiful, and it’s a little disappointing they don’t squish and expand. Of course, Geoff is already experimenting with the kinetic aspect with his latest experiment. It would be interesting to see what materials he uses and if he will reintroduce bounced color back into his pieces. A reading to revisit might be Jan Butterfield’s The Art of Light and Space – the section on color and the scalloped example.

Changing Light

Posted on 04/18/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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Here are the final images from last week’s assignment on bounced color. I feel that I have found a form that I like and can experiment with and I have been trying to make different iterations of it. They are not ready to post yet, but I have been angling the cuts and playing with making a circular lantern using semi opaque materials like vellum. A few suggestions from my classmates included using different colors to bounce onto the surface, or to even use an image. Someone also mentioned how it would be interesting to orient the cuts in response to different times of day. Sort of like a vertical sundial, where depending on the shadows or shapes on the walls, you can tell what time it is. I think my next step can be to explore some or all of these ideas.

For my changing light study I recorded the inside wall of my lighting model and observed the shadows as the light source changed around it. The results are more interesting than I thought. I discovered that as the light moved and was interrupted by the different openings, it created an almost kaleidoscope effect on the walls. Thinking how this could translate into my lantern idea, I am reminded of these lanterns I’ve seen that rotate with the light source inside of it, probably a tea light. The design is usually simple, a rectangle with a motif cut out of one side that is then projected onto the walls.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thoughts for final project

Posted on 04/07/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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Light studies using screens from assignment 1.

In the previous assignment, I experimented with paper and origami techniques. I liked the result of the screen where I had use both origami techniques and linear cuts in the watercolor paper. I found that the object with the different heights of the folds created more interesting shadows onto itself than it creating shadows on a surface. With a strong enough light, a surface glow is also emitted, with the light escaping from the linear cuts. I can see this screen, after being developed more, can become a very nice lamp shade. I think I am going to experiment with different materials and opaqueness to see how I can filter and control light, and maybe figure out how i can bounce it onto another surface that will change as the light source or the viewer is moving around it.

I like the effect that James Carpenter created using structural glass prisms. It has this sort of mystical quality reflecting light, the sky, clouds, the trees outside and is constantly changing with the movement of the sun.

$Images from the book Envrionmental Refractions on the work of James Carpenter on Structural Glass Prisms$ Images from the book Envrionmental Refractions on the work of James Carpenter on Structural Glass Prisms

Light Modulators

Posted on 03/30/2011 by Nancy Cheng

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In the reading excerpt by Moholy, Vision in Motion, he describes objects being photographed as light modulators. Thinking of the object as not a thing by itself but as a tool that manipulates, catches, reflects, bounces, distorts and absorbs light. Anything can be called a light modulator, including the human face. Our first mini-assignment in class was to manipulate a material and just observe the shadows that can be created from it. I created a “wheaties”-looking object using watercolor paper and linear cuts. I found that by having many different light sources (by accident) actually created a more interesting shadow, with parts of it sharper and blurred depending on the intensity of the light source.

This light source layering effect reminded me very much of performance theater, where a scene is controlled very much by the lighting used. This may be something I want to explore since my studio project is to design a performing arts center this quarter. I am still not quite sure how I want to explore this – possibly through the use of paper, various cuts, or origami techniques. I tested out a few origami tessellations and noticed how the larger the fold, the more dramatic the shadows are within the objects are. I may try to test out different materials, such as tissue paper, mesh, or fabric to see what results I can get.

Origami Tessellation 2