The Long Slow Burn

Blog, ITP, Thesis PT 1 , 0 Comments

Block…This week felt long.

Felt blocked to make something representative of my ideas.

Felt uninspired to make anything…

But I did some research haha.

But I did push through and make something. My research is ever winding like a string around a ball. The path goes in many directions, as does life, but there is always the constant of moving towards an end. Memories along the way serve as reminders of the life we lived, those who were touched by our movements through life remember us. Until one day all those who had memories of us are gone as well. The String and this image are both representative of life. In the beginning we are born of darkness, we come into the light and eventually cast out own light, along the way we fade into nothing more than memory until darkness is all that is left. So say a void appears in the space you once occupied, however, the space has always been there, it is you that has come and gone. Was the void made by you or is it in spite of you?
But I did push through and make something. My research is ever winding like a string around a ball. The path goes in many directions, as does life, but there is always the constant of moving towards an end. Memories along the way serve as reminders of the life we lived, those who were touched by our movements through life remember us. Until one day all those who had memories of us are gone as well. The String and this image are both representative of life. In the beginning we are born of darkness, we come into the light and eventually cast out own light, along the way we fade into nothing more than memory until darkness is all that is left. So say a void appears in the space you once occupied, however, the space has always been there, it is you that has come and gone. Was the void made by you or is it in spite of you?

There are a lot of examples of light painting to be found. There are even many examples of light paint with different types of pendulums, there is however, one major difference between these works and my one. That being the what effects the movement of the pendulum. The works I have found fall into two major categories human body movement and fixed ration pendulums. Human body movement can be very organized and produce intended specific patterns and shapes or forms but it can also be sporadic. Fixed ratio pendulums can be deigned to move in harmonic patterns or have a bit of chaos thrown into the mix, however the chaos that is produced is very specific to the construction. Usually mounted vertically and allows gravity to be exerted on a compound rigid pendulum. The movement will always have aspects that are concentric and only moves around two pivot points. Once the movement starts it is left up to physics to decide the path. To date I have not found any example attached to an infinitely variable mounting point and have the movement of the point dictated by intangible interactions of the viewers in the room where it is installed.

I’ve always thought about this as installation in two rooms one the pendulum itself and the other a series of projections of the movements made by the pendulum. I guess anyone who finds themselves in a gallery or museum would be my audience. This installation would need to viewed in a controlled environment base on how particular parts of it work, specifically the need for the pendulum to be housed in a dark room.

I’m pretty far along with the “story” behind this installation. It is an abstraction of time. It speaks to how we move through life, the chaos and forces that influence it, and the permanence of death through the chaotic movement of the pendulum and the record (memory) of the movement. The record on lasts a single day, once the day closes the memory, the physical computer memory, is erased.

A brief description of the installation and the technology that needs to be used follows. Two rooms adjoined with a single door between them, the door needs to be light tight so it will be something like the type of door found in darkrooms. The first room houses the pendulum it will be fairly dark in the room to allow for a camera placed directly under the movement area of the pendulum can capture the movement. The movement of the pendulum will be evidenced by a single RGB LED located at the bottom of the pendulum. The color of the LED is based on the position the pendulums attachment point. The pendulum is attached to a carriage that is on an X/Y gantry. The limits of the gantry will most likely be 8 inches on both X and Y axis. The distance on each axis and the speed at which the carriage travels along the axis are determent by intangible interactions of the viewers. I have figured out which interactions or sensor I will be using for this part. The camera takes a one minute exposure, after the exposure is finished it is sent to a device (most likely a raspberry pi) which is hooked up to a project. The image of the previous image will be added to the project in the next room. The project changes over time, at the start of the day the projection is black for one minute. Each minute there after the previous minute’s image is added to the projection. Each time an image is added the grid expands, if it needs to, to accommodate the new image. For example at the start of minute six there will be five images which will no longer fit in the previous 2×2 grid so the grid expands to 4×4. The grid always expands to keep it square. At the end of the day there will be a grid of 1440 images one image for each minute of the day. At the end of the day the images are deleted and lost forever.

I need to figure out the camera, the gantry, the sensors, the wireless communication, and the project for this to come together. There are a few places along this journey that could be intermediate stopping points, however, I think that it is possible to finish by the end of next semester.

I’ve always thought about this as installation in two rooms one the pendulum itself and the other a series of projections of the movements made by the pendulum. I guess anyone who finds themselves in a gallery or museum would be my audience. This installation would need to viewed in a controlled environment base on how particular parts of it work, specifically the need for the pendulum to be housed in a dark room.

I’m pretty far along with the “story” behind this installation. It is an abstraction of time. It speaks to how we move through life, the chaos and forces that influence life, and the permanence of death through the c