The Body: Experiments

I have finally recovered from Wisp (photos from that coming sometime this upcoming week) so time to get to real business with the body project!  I did a few experiments drawing a continuous line with my arm fully stretched out.  It hurt more than expected and I lasted maybe 10-15 minutes before my arm just couldn't keep itself up anymore.  It was also difficult to keep a smooth line since the sharpie liked to skip a little.

The first image is me just trying to draw with a continuous line and as you can see the line liked to skip around.  The second image I had an image in mind and gave my arm a little more support at the elbow so it's smoother.  

While doing these experiments I came up with a modified idea where I draw something associated with my body (I'm thinking maybe an EKG, but where could I get that done...?) 20-30 times, scan those images, and then laser engrave each iteration into plexiglass.  That could be interesting since there will be different depths where the laser traces over the same area.  I would also probably want to have a layer of color on top of the plexiglass so that the engraving creates some contrast.

Not sure if I'm going to incorporate technology into this one.  My first instinct is almost always "add light," and although I think illuminating the engraved lines would be beautiful I would need to figure out how to build a box to contain it all.

The Night

This past Friday the Site Specific class that I am in currently had our The Night show/tour combination.  I had the main components ready by Friday morning: arduino with sounds and IR sharp, power relay, lamp, two speakers, and two extension cords.  Not wanting to set up too early and risk someone getting too curious about the glowing bench on their way to Bucksbaum, I waited until 4:00pm to set up, a whole three hours before the show's start.  In my mind that was plenty of time.

I was wrong.

I finished at 6:55pm.  That was with a ton of help from Miles and Miriam since I ended up needing longer wires, a capacitor, a power strip, and had to change the code three times to make sure that the IR sharp would trigger when someone walked past it.

In the end, I was happy with how it ended up!  The blue light looked beautiful on the tree branches.

Sounds!

I created three short sounds for the tree installation the other day.  Still trying to work out how to embed mp3s onto blogger...apparently I have to create a site that holds media files?  That source is four years old though so I don't know how accurate that is.

Experimentation

I decided to add a visual element to the The Night project.  After talking with Lee on Friday, I found out about artist Tord Boontje, and I think having trees that make sounds and light up would be really beautiful.

I tried some light casting experiments using a flashlight and a cardboard roll with holes poked into it.

The particular flashlight I was using had its lens on the side so the light cast was stronger in one area rather than an even, all over cast but I think something like this could work!