I went to the Noguchi Museum for the first time this weekend! It was the last day for the collaborative exhibit "Objects of Common Interest: Hard, Soft, and All Lit Up with Nowhere to Go" and I'm so glad I was able to catch it because I loved how the lights lit up the sculptures and the whole space.
- Why did you choose the installation?
I loved the organic shapes of the lights and their warm glow that contrasted so nicely with the hard surfaces of the sculptures and concrete walls. - What and how it has been made and how to incorporate it into your work.
The lights seem to be bent glass with florescent light that gives a warmer glow. I especially love that the lights are formed in a way that feels like it's coming out of or going into the wall, and that there's a puddle of "water" (mirror) on the floor that feels like another world the light is going into. I'm interested in incorporating mirrors and this sort of continuity into my work. - How are visitors flow? How is it installed?
It was a cold snowy day so there weren't that many visitors, but they seemed to concentrate more on the sculptures than the lights. The lights are leaned against a wall (I do wonder if the tall one has structural support going into the wall) and a very discrete cord that is plugged into the outlet. The cords were so discrete that I didn't notice them at first (they also blended in well with the cracks on the floor). - Where is equipment visible or hidden?
No visible equipment, just a cord coming out of the light. - What is the material?
Presumably glass, florescent light, and a mirror. - What is the purpose of the installation?
My interpretation is that the lights are a contrast with the sculptures. I find it particularly interesting that the title includes "Nowhere to Go", perhaps alluding to the fact that even though the lights look like they are extending into the wall and ground, they aren't actually. - What kind of technology is used? And in the end, Is it working?
Only technology is light.
Guest speaker: Motomichi Nakamura
I really enjoyed Motomichi's guest talk! In fact, I had one of his pieces—"Tiny People Tribe"—bookmarked as inspiration for this class's final project. Some notes I took:
- He is always trying to solve a problem/challenge with each project.
- First "Tiny People Tribe" was because he wanted to create projection mapping where it couldn't be cancelled—in his own home!
- Another iteration in Berlin, he couldn't go to there beforehand to design the set for the projection mapping so he used Ikea furniture that he could find at home that he knew would be exactly the same in Berlin.
- Another iteration on projection mapping that can't be cancelled: "NYC subway creatures" with a mobile projector
- Usually the ideal for projection mapping is a dark room with matte white material (20% gray is actually best so that black can also project nicely onto it!) but another challenge he undertook was to project onto a black material in a lit room. Found that he could achieve this with 20x the normal brightness/lumens (?).
- A BenQ 4000 lumen projector (like the ones in our classrooms) work fine outdoors, the biggest consideration is the ambient light and that the surface doesn't get any other direct light aside from the projector.
Final project
I got some great feedback from Chika about my final project idea (outlined last week):
- Projection onto fabric might bleed onto the next piece of fabric, experiment with the fabric
- If there are too many people in front of the fabric/screen they'll cast shadows.
One of the things I realized while telling her about the project was that I actually wasn't the most excited about the idea; I kept thinking back to Motomichi's presentation and how he started with his inspirations and influences, and what mine are. In particular, one of my goals this semester is to concentrate more on self-expression instead of visualizing datasets about other people.
I kept thinking about how one of the little things I lost during the pandemic was my sense of wonder; pre-pandemic I'd go outside and find little beautiful moments that I'd take a photo of and keep for inspiration later. When I first started going outside again after the pandemic, I noticed that I didn't remember how to do that any more.
I'm thinking of a visualization of all the photos I've taken over the years both pre and post pandemic, and animate their colors and quantity over the years. This will be projected onto a large bowl of water, and when the animation approaches March 2020, water will start dripping one drop at a time from the top, distorting the projection—which is how I felt about the time period between March 2020 and May 2021, that time felt so distorted, it felt both expanding and shrinking at the same time.
The next step with this idea would be to test projection onto water.