- Presentation
Amber Zhu
When the Light Comes In: Light and Dust
Link to my sketch.
- Elevator Pitch
When the Light Comes In creates a view of the tiny dust particles under the lights from the outside of windows. When the Light Comes In: Light and Dust is aimed to make parts of the large amounts of dust be noticed and inspire people to discover insignificant objects in their daily lives.
- Abstract
When the Light Comes In is a project that uses light to make the tiny dust particles to be seen in our daily life. Since 5,200 tons of extraterrestrial dust fall on Earth each year. This gentle rain of bits of comets and asteroids far outweighs larger meteorites that hit the planet, according to research to be published April 15 in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters. Only about 10 tons (9 metric tons) of larger space rocks land on Earth annually. Things of large shapes are always paid attention to, but large amounts of things of small shapes like dust from the universe are ignored by people. This project is aimed to remind people of the small objects which are always around them and ignored by them. In this project, the room is designed to be dark without any light at first to simulate the occasions of daily life. When viewers put the mouse on the window, the window will open, lights will come in and the tiny dust particles can be seen. This is the main part of my project to create a picture of colorful dust particles under the shine of lights. If viewers press the mouse, the entire room will be illuminated with yellow lights. The project thus combines the light with the dust and conveys the message that tiny things can be seen on certain occasions. People can also discover that the insignificant things in daily life can be beautiful if they observe more carefully.
- Reflection
- Process: Design and Composition
I watched a musical before I designed this project and I noticed that when the light is on in the dark background, the dust can be seen. The picture was also fascinating. Then I searched light and dust on the google, I found this picture which gave me the original design of my project.
(The picture is from this website.)
I also found that the surprising fact that 5,200 tons of extraterrestrial dust fall on Earth each year from this website. I used this fact to develop my idea of this project. This makes the idea of my project different from others.
However, I still have questions on how to create the light. Then I found a picture of light to inspire my thoughts.
(The picture is from this website.)
I also found it difficult to add interaction to my project. Then I used triangles to represent windows which can be used for interaction. I also tried to design that wherever the mouse is, the light will come in from the position of mouse. However, this design is weird in visual to some extent. Then I used the top left side of the window as the source of light. I also added the process of turning the light in this dark room on and off to make the interaction diverse.
- Process: Technical
I first used OOP and Dynamic Array to create the four pieces of window and the dust particles. Since I used OOP and Dynamic Array to create one set of dust particles, creating several sets of dust particles is difficult for me, so I chose to repeat the code. Then I found it difficult to control when would the window be opened according to the position of mouseX and mouseY. I first use distance function to calculate the distance from the mouse to the top left side of one piece of window, however, it does not work well in some occasion. Then I use the if () to set conditions which works better. If I had the chance to do it all over again, I will learn to use OOP and Dynamic Array more times on creating one object and make my code more fluent.
- Reflection and Future Development
- Myself
I spent large amounts of time developing my idea from that everyone can present on a stage to that we can notice tiny things in our daily life. I consider my final version of idea as the most interesting part of my project. However, I found that code of my project is not fluent enough and the interaction part is too simple.
- Peer Students, Instructor and Guest Critics
The interaction of my project can be developed by setting a handle on the window for users to press on to open the window. Meanwhile, as the window opens, dust particles around it will be influenced and will change their tracks. The source of lights that comes in focusing on the top left side of window makes the visualization weird. Indoor objects like furniture can also be added to make visualization more diverse and realistic. The dust particles slowly moving out of the sketch does not correspond with reality and should fall down on the ground finally.
- Future development
To make my project more interesting, I will add the interaction of process of opening windows and dust particles moving in all directions. I will also add the process of dust particles falling down on the ground to make my project more realistic. In the future, I want to discover more possibilities of the theme of light and other elements in our daily life.