For this assignment, me and my partner made 3 mechanisms, pictures and videos are attached below.
This small project is about a woodpecker peaking on the truck of a tree.
This small project is about the mouse Jerry running on a gear. Jerry looks happy.
This small project is about the cat Tom beating the mouse Jerry. The mouse Jerry comes out and hides in the hole, but the cat Tom can never beat Jerry.
Project Description
This project is called âSpectrum ButterflyđŠâ, which is in combination with light and movement. Standing on a 25*25cm wooden box, the wings of the butterfly are made of 4 pieces of semitransparent acrylic board, two on the right, and two on the left. Between each pair on the same side is a CRGB-led strip attached in the middle.
There are two transparent acrylic hinges, which limit the range of the wingsâ movement, attached to the bottom of each wing. On the two sides of the project, two MS196 servos control the movement of the wings. The fishline serves as the connection between servos and wings. Transparent elastic bands are tied between two wings, functioning as stabilizers.
Building process:
My inspiration for this project came from an artwork âLove Motels for Insectsâ by artist Brandon BallengĂ©e. The picture of the artwork is attached below. But for my project, I use a CRGB-led strip rather than using ultraviolet as the light source. For the wingsâ movement, I chose servos because I think they are easy to control.
Perspective and Context
This project fits into the context of art and perception, light art, and kinetic art. Broeckmann mentioned in his book that âLong live art, the art of the machine with its construction and logic, its rhythm, its constituent parts, its material, its metaphysical spiritâthe art of the âcounter-reliefââ (2017). Different from a plain sculpture, this project incorporates various materials and elements including lights, movements, and aesthetics. Driven by two servos, the wings move rhythmically as their colors change, making the butterfly look beautiful and alive.
Kinetic Construction is an artwork produced by Naum Gabo in 1920. It contains a vibrating electrical motor attached to a vertically erect length of flat spring steel, weighted slightly on the upper end. It well-showcased what simplicity was. In a document, Gobo pointed out that kinetic rhythms are new forms of kinetic art, they can act as the basic forms of our perception of real-time. Servos that drive wings to move and the transition of colors provided by CRGB-led strip are great evidence of kinetic rhythms, which enables people to perceive the time-changing process.
Development & Technical Implementation
Inspired by the artwork âLove Motels for Insectsâ by Brandon BallengĂ©e, the model of this project mostly stayed the same: using semitransparent acrylic boards for wings, installing servos to move the wings, and making a CRGE-led strip as the light source.
At first, I wanted to install 4 servos to drive the wings to move, but I gave up this idea because it would not only make the circuit complicated but also make it easy for the Arduino to be damaged. Thus, I only used 2 servos. I had no idea how to stabilize two wings. With Ericâs suggestions plus several tryouts, I finally chose transparent hinges and elastic bands to make the sculpture fixed.
As for the final implementation of this project, the main butterfly sculpture is laser-cut from acrylic boards, standing on a wooden box that hides all wires and Arduino inside; a CRGB-led strip is attached between two layers of the wings; two servos are installed under the top side of the box, fishlines connect wings and servos; elastic bands hold two wings, making them stable. When turning on the project, servos drive the wings to move, at the same time, the color of the wings changes with the rhythm of the movement. Audiences can view the wings moving with a gentle transition of colors.
CODE: this folder
Presentation
During the presentation, the butterfly worked well. It moved its wings driven by two servos, at the same time, the color of the wings changed with the movement.
It started from Red, with orange, and yellow flipped by, and the color gradually transited to green, then blue, purple, and pink. After that, the color was back to red and circulated again. I think the audience understood my project well.
The project looks more beautiful in total darkness, the light combined well with the wings, and the change of the lights looked great with the movement of the wings. Amazingly, the reflection of the light on the wall on the back from the wingsâ lights was startling. I did not expect to see that but it happened and looked nice.
Several parts of the project can be improved. Firstly, the sound of the wingsâ movement was a bit loud. I think the problem was that I mistakenly squeezed too much glue onto the hinge on the bottom and the glue hindered the movement of the hinges a bit. Besides, the color should not be ârainbowâ, it should be limited to specific colors rather than covering all colors. In the IMA show, I changed the color set and made the wings run without addressing the green color, only the transition between red and blue.
Pictures and Videos: this folder
Conclusion
Reflecting on the “Spectrum ButterflyđŠ” project, I’ve gained significant insights and faced challenges that influenced both my artistic, technical, and problem-solving skills. Whether in the choice of color or the entire project, it is important to emphasize harmony and unity, for example, use transparent elastic bands rather than yellow ones. If one technology does not work, try another one. For Arduino Nano, it is hard to install a new servo library, so I used Arduino Uno instead. Embracing simplicity rather than complexity can be shown in the reduction of the number of servos from four to two.
The project succeeded in captivating audiences during its presentation. The synchronization of color changes with wing movements created a visually striking effect, enhanced by unexpected light reflections that added depth to the artwork.
For future improvements, I have to consider more about the color transitions: avoid addressing multiple colors and instead, focus on specific colors; to reduce the noise, I have to be more careful when making the project. Overall, “Spectrum ButterflyđŠ” is a valuable project that enables me to understand kinetic and light art better and explore them further.
Kinetic Art is a form of art that produces non-representational art using the parameters of real-time and motion. It is concerned with motions resulting from forces directly connected to physical systems, always related to constructivism and futurism. People started to appreciate the energy, power, and efficiency of machines under the rise of the Industrial Revolution. With the development of kinetic art, artists focused more on combining machines into artworks in a perfect way, challenging traditional notions of art and aesthetics.
From Kineticism: The Unrequited Art, I chose Naum Gaboâs artwork Kinetic Construction in 1920, and Yves Kleinâs Double-Sided Wall of Fire in 1961. Their artworks fit well with Broekmannâs âfive key aspects of machine aestheticsâ, which are associative, symbolic, formalist, kinetic, and automatic according to Broekmann. Naum Gaboâs artwork Kinetic Construction showed âsimplicityâ. It is a mechanical sculpture consisting of a plain steel rod emerging from a small black wooden base, now encased for protection in a clear acrylic box. No complicated components, no colorful parts, just the original color of steel rod and a black wooden base. This artwork fits well with âsymbolicâ, regarding technology, using technical iconography to represent nontechnical phenomena like. When pressing a button, the machine springs to life: through the rapid oscillations caused by a hidden electric motor in the base, it forms the illusion of a sinuously twisting, three-dimensional shape. The image generated through these movements, with its quivering transparency, is that of a âstanding waveâ. This mechanism is by the term âformalistâ, which emphasizes the beauty of functional technical forms.
However, Gobo had not solved the dilemma of early mechanistic Kinetics: Somehow the motor “interfered” with the motion it produced and had to be made small enough not to cause competition with the sculpture itself.
Naum Gabo, Kinetic Construction, 1920
Yves Kleinâs artwork Double-Sided Wall of Fire is “immateriality”. He was the nucleus of a new art reality-not in bronze, steel, stone, or even plastic-but in the gaseous and liquid elements, and their residue. The Wall of Fire comprised two metal elements and ten rows of Bunsen burners running on town gas. The site is very marvelous because a bunch of fire is lit simultaneously. From dark to bright, from nothing to everything. It is a great combination of the physical, and mechanical movement of technical parts, color, and visual effect, showing the aesthetics of machine art to a great degree. The âautomaticâ operation of machines also underpins their functional independence and their existential strangeness.
Yves Klein, Double-Sided Wall of Fire, 1961
As for my ideas, I think they play a diverse and integral role in media arts projects, contributing to creativity, innovation, and exploration. Machines can be used to create interactive installations among users, artists, and projects. It can make static artwork more active, interesting, and attractive. People can view the media project multi-dimensionally.
We used three PAR Lights in this composition with Charlotte, Ricci, Melanie, Ashley, and Lexie. We built the project with the usage of shadow. The “sundial” was in the middle, and three lights were set up in three directions around the “sundial”. 
This mimic is a clock. It is a slow-paced life at first. At first, every hour is orderly, calm, and regular. But as time goes by, the pace becomes faster and faster, and the time arrangement becomes more and more compact. The more refined it is, the more color types it has as if it is given more tasks. In the end, there are even three-pointers, which can be understood as the chaos caused by the too tight and fast a pace of time.
It can also represent students’ lives every semester: at the beginning, we do not have lots of work to do. But as time goes on, multiple tasks are added to academics, and we have to do more homework, presentations, and projects. More lights are opening, and various color is shown on the sundial. Shadow grows from single to triple.
In this assignment, I grouped with Ashley. We were inspired by an artwork called “Twilight over the Ocean Painting (oil on canvas)”.
The twilight above the ocean is beautiful, and we chose to use 2 Neon LED matrixes, one shows the twilight, another represents the ocean, and Acrylic boards to build the model.
Sunset:
Water:
The twilight of the sunset shown from the LED has 7 stages, which can change through time, in order as bright blue, cream color, orange, red, purple, ocean blue, and finally fade. The âwaterâ LED will stay constantly ocean blue.
Project Description
This project works like a voice-changing speaker: when speaking to the microphone, their voice will change. There are three sound modes: baby voice, the voice of minions, and the voice of transformers. Users can adjust the switch under the microphone to pick the voice tune. There is a voice-changing module inside the middle box of the project, and I use a little Arduino breadboard to connect the module with a speaker, a microphone, and a button by using wires. When pushing the button while speaking to the microphone, the changed sound will come from the front speakers.
I was inspired by a movie called Minion. In the movie, there is a plot in which when little minions speak through a speaker, their voices change at the same time. I found it very interesting and combined this idea with my project. Human beings are getting used to the voices they use every day. This project provides people a chance to change their voice tune. By using this project, users can call others names by different voices, having fun while making life more interesting.
Perspective and Context
In the first week, we learned about many kinds of perceptions and had a look at how artists incorporated different perceptions into their artworks. In my project, I choose to modify sound perception and transform oneâs voice into several different tunes. The Chameleon Tune project is not just a simple voice-changing module, it is both aesthetic and user-friendly. As Irwin mentioned in the readings: â âArtâ is a posture of aesthetic inquiry, the punctual/conceptual recognition, construction and ordering of individual realityâ.
This project is combined in the shape of a loudspeaker, with a microphone exposed on the back, a switch under the microphone, a button attached on the left side, an LED from about wrapped by a colorful cover, a speaker in the front, and a handle attached on the bottom of this project. Users can easily hold the handle and push the button while speaking to the microphone. All the wires, the module, and the batteries are hidden inside the middlebox. Chameleon Tune is aesthetic because of its simplicity and usefulness, it is a great fit of âartâ.
The circuit inside the middle looks like this:
Development & Technical Implementation
Among all kinds of perceptions, I was extremely interested in voice. At first, I searched on Google for how to change peopleâs voices and found that inhaling helium can make peopleâs voices sharper. However, it is hard to use this idea because it is not only hard to purchase helium but also even if I got the helium gas, it is dangerous for all of us to inhale. In addition, helium can make voice sharp only when it is inside peopleâs throats. It is difficult to put this idea into practice. Therefore, I turned to find other alternatives. I remember that I watched a movie called Minion when I was in elementary school. In this movie, little minions use a loudspeaker to change their voices and have fun with others. Inspired by the movie, making my project as a shape loudspeaker came to my mind.
Because of the time and resource limitations, I chose to use cardboard, the most accessible material in the IMA studio as the main part of my project. By using tape, a hot glue gun, and essential tools, I made a cardboard loudspeaker.
I also bought a voice-changing module online, borrowing a small breadboard, a push-button, and some wires in the studio, connecting them as a controllable device and combining the device with the cardboard-built loudspeaker.
Hold the handle and push the button while speaking to the microphone, a changing sound will come out in front of the loudspeaker. At the same time, the LED light will shine and change colors. Users can also adjust the switch under the microphone to choose what sounds they want to change.
Presentation
During the presentation, one of my classmates tested my project after I explained how my project worked. She pushed the button, talked through the microphone, and then her voice came from the speaker was shaper than her original voice. She recognized that her voice was like a minion. She also tried adjusting the switch from the left to the middle, repeating the previous procedure, and then what we heard was the sound of the transformer, but people could hardly hear clearly what she said. Other classmates also played with my project, and from them, I received feedback.
People said my project was interesting and amusing, and they enjoyed playing it. All of the equipment functioned well. However, there were also several points that I could improve. The changing voice is clear when the switch is on the left or the right, but when it is in the middle, people cannot hear a clear changing voice. Besides, the changing voice was supposed to be larger, but it ended up with a low volume instead. After I checked the project, I found out that the speaker had dropped inside the middle boxâthat is why the changing voice was vague, like coming from inside the box. Whatâs more, it would be better if I could add a cover for the microphone, for when a tester speaks to the microphone, listeners can hear the testerâs original voice and the changing voice simultaneously. A cover can prevent the changing voice from disturbing the testerâs original voice.
Conclusion
After making my project while presenting it in class, I learned a lot. Firstly, I refreshed my memory about how to use the basic equipment because I have not touched these IMA equipment for a year and am somewhat unfamiliar with these things. Secondly, I learned that thinking comprehensively before making the project is very important. In the beginning, I finished connecting most components and combined the electronic parts with the cardboard. However, after I attached them, I figured out that I was not able to turn off the speaker. So I can only take the components out of the cardboard and rebuild the electronic parts to add a switch for it. Thirdly, I should consider more about the effect of this project. Without a cover, listeners can hear the speakerâs real voice and the changing voice at the same time. Whatâs more, I built the cardboard in the shape of the loudspeaker, aiming to amplify the volume. However, it ended up with the opposite effect: the volume of the speaker was constrained under the cardboard.
What I succeeded in was that I ensured the overall function of the project, none of the components were broken, and the cardboard outside was intact and solid. Also, the idea of building the project in the shape of a loudspeaker made it interesting and user-friendly. In the future, I have to think of ways to ensure the effect of my project, including making a concise plan beforehand, being careful when picking the materials, and seeking advice from others.
In the âLight as Sculpture Mediumâ reading, Thomas Wilfred, a pioneer who has consistently moved counter to the popular trends of modern art, is the most consistent pioneer in the âArt of Lightâ, which he also called âLumiaâ. This new art form was among the first successful fusions of modern art and technology before considering the uses of light in a three-dimensional context, continuing to impact later generations of light and media artists.
In 1949, Fontana created a “spatial environment” of âhung wooden sculpture illuminated by black-light lampsâ. Different from âLumiaâ, the light was used in a 3-dimensional context in Fontanaâs artwork âWalking The Space: Spatial Environmentsâ. In a dark room, there is an abstract sculpture painted with fluorescent colors, suspended at the center of the ceiling. The surroundings of the house, as well as the sculpture, are illuminated by ultraviolet lights. The main color of the artwork is blue, mixed with a bit of green, pink, red, and purple, providing a quiet, peaceful, and mysterious atmosphere.
Even though the sculpture is static, by painted with bright color on its streamlined shape while illuminated by ultraviolet lights, this artwork seems like it is dancing in space.
In Bruce Naumanâs Green Light Corridor, the âinterior of the corridor is lit with bright green fluorescent light, which appears to change to dazzling white after a few seconds. When the participants emerge into daylight at the corridor’s end, they experience a pink, almost magenta, afterimageâ. After participants leave the corridor, the pink afterimage they would see when looking at the white gallery wall and sky; the purple hue they would see when looking at a blue ocean through a pink afterimage. Nauman enforces the contrast between the perceptual and physical experience of space in his sculptures and installations, and his Green Light Corridor provides participants with a different phenomenological experience.
In terms of phenomenology of light and space, different than other colorful and comparably complicated artwork, Light and Space art is seemingly simple and reductive. It might be easily ignored by people, considering it ânothing more than a white wallâ. However, such a reductive enterprise maximizes aesthetic possibility.
Light can impact on peopleâs visual perception, but when combining light with space, it can also create the illusion of volume. James Turrell’s projection Afrum “cube” seems to be a lustrous, suspended cube, but it is actually the conjunction of two flat panels of projected light; a rectangle of radiant color hovering in front of a wall is really a deep, illuminated depression in the space.
