title: The Boundless Light
While I was thinking of the final project, a memory suddenly came into my mind. Several months earlier, I went to “teamLab Borderless Shanghai”, in which a mirror room with countless lights composing a boundless secene left a deep impression on me. I also reserch some of Yayoi Kusama’s works, who built the Infinity Mirror Room I mentioned before. Therefore, I decided to create something as imaginative as possible. Besides, “The Ascent” in my final project research post also give me insights on engaging the audience into a fanscinating experience. The challenge I will address is how to make neopixels display lights in different patterns according to the mouse position sent from Processing. This is intended to make the artifact more engaging and impressive, since the audience can see and play with it. I think this is pretty relavant to people who want to find insights for their artworks or want to broaden their imagination.
To build my project, I will first build up a wooden frame for the neopixels, only one side will be open to the audience, which ultimately makes a box with one door. Some reflective foil will needed to cover the inside of the box. With more reflection, the patterns will appear more dreamlike, which can help my intended audience. Second, I will integrate multiple neopixels into the box, which provides the main function of my project. Arduino is used in this step. Last is the programming. Since I want the audience to use the Processing to control the neopixels, I will have to record the mouse position and send it to Arduino. I plan to build the box next week. The neopixels may take much more time, but I will try to finish it also in the next week. The programming will happen simultaneously as I interagte the neopixels, so it won’t take many times. I suppose I can finish it in two weeks.
Back to the preparatory research, “The Ascent” gives me a visual shock, except for how it involves the audience. So does the Infinit Mirror Room. This is different from my midterm project which seems ordinary and boring at first glance. Light is a powerful way to attract people’s attention and leave impression on them. Thus, I was inspired and got the idea of the Boundless Light. This project is align with my definition of interaction, because it clearly leaves something in the audience’s heads. The message of immersing in this dreamlike experience is very obvious. I think this kind of interaction gives the audience an engagement what Ernest Edmonds concludes as “relating”. He describes it as “a long term interest, which occurs when the audience wants
to experience the work again and again, perhaps over many years” (12). Well, this is similar to what I have said in the begining, the experience of the room suddenly hopped into my mind. However, my project is different in that it let the audience control the lights and the patterns are varied.
My project leads to the interaction between human and lights. More creative artifacts can be built upon what I designed. Due to the restriction of space, I cannot make it a room for it, but I’m sure it will be amazing if the room displays different light patterns when people enters different sections. I hope many artists can be inspired just as what I have been, if so, this is the value of my project.