Category: Kinetic Light

Perspective & Context

Guy Brett approaches the concept of eye and body in his book by addressing that “the concentration on optic, the visual sense, as a vehicle for the exploration of movement and space/time, can be exploded, even from within visual are itself, by another tendency” (52). Such tendency, according to him, can be understood by and large as the separation of the visual form the other senses, or namely, the eye from the body. Through devices that “disturb, or manipulate, the body’s sense of space through a play the optic nerve”, kinetic art, allows for a “much more radical reorientation” of both out bodily experience and our thinking (52). In this sense, artworks by two contemporary artists, Esther Stocker and Sebastian Hempel, can be seen as various demonstrations of such concept of perceptual reorientation.

Esther Stocker

Esther Stocker creates spatial installations that manipulate people’s perception of space. Her ideas about space actually emerges from 2D paintings: in many of her words, the space are constantly reformed generated by perceiving lines or patched from different perspectives. In a reduced language of form consisting of black and white lines and grids, her works explore formal boundaries and spatial structures by creating a space where he viewer no longer can tell where the floor ends and the wall begins. Though her works are not kinetic, they demonstrate very well that the visual perception is a main factor for spatial experience. 

Sebastian Hempel

The works of Sebastian Hempel are as full of movement as the spaces presented. While many of them are fitted with sensors, reacting to the presence of potential observers or users, who in turn trigger the artistic event by means of their body, there are also excellent works that concentrate on the motions with only installation.  Those mechanical process have implications in terms of content, as all the aesthetic effects really on the motions of either installations or human movements. With a similar concept  as Stocker’s work but demonstrate in a kinetic way, his kinetic light sculpture, Leuchtstabbild (Lightbarimage), really inspires me of the way space can be reformed with motions. 

Project Description

Drawn from the concepts presented by these artists, I intend to build my project as an exploration of both motion and spatial experience.  My project will be a kinetic collocation of lights which will function highly based on mechanic installation. I would have several light parts formed in based shapes like lines, squareness and grids with strip-lightings (tubes) . These parts would be place on/against a wall (by against I mean vertically) to create a combination of 2D/3D effect, and will be moving linearly in some order to generate the effect of reforming space. 

To move the lights, I would build a mechanic installation with the idea of block and tackle. Each pull block will consist of motors, reels (maybe 3D printed) and strings. The movement for lights will be generative,  and its  order will be random for each lighting parts but synchronous as a whole, which will be achieve through Arduino programming. 

Production Schedule (Three and a half weeks duration)

• 04/28 (Sun) Research & Material preparation
• 04/30 (Tue) Material & lighting test
• 05/02  (Thur) Physical part testing assemble (start by parts)
• 05/07 (Tus) Physical part testing assemble (finishing by parts, start installing)
• 05/09(Thur) Problem shooting
• 05/13 (Mon) Adjustment and finish installation
• 05/14 (Tue) Pre-Final Critique
• 05/15 (Wed) Final adjustment
• 05/16  (Thur) – Project 3 Presentation

We have been focusing on light and light art for the first half of the semester. Therefore, for this final project, I looked more into kinetic artists and attempted to draw inspirations from them. Eventually I want to see how I incorporate the element of light into motion making truly kinetic light art. 

Perspective and Context

David C. Roy is a computer programmer turned kinetic art sculptor. He creates wooden kinetic sculpture that moves on its own without external motor, battery or power source. I thought Roy’s approach to kinetic art is quite unconventional and thought-provoking. He utilizes knowledge from when he was a physics student to make his pieces move by manually winding gear wheels. 

Another interesting fact is that Roy does not only concern with the movements of his sculptures but also the sound that they create. The idea of stimulating different senses is important when it comes to making people perceiving art. 

The second artist I found very inspiring is Christopher Bauder. I was especially attracted to his piece “Circular”  composed of three moveable lighting rings suspended from the ceiling. While Bauder gives meaning to the rings by associating them to eternity, I was simply just amazed by the installation itself. 

Even though there is only one shape of three different sizes, the varieties of movements they create are stunning. The moves are slow but hypnotizing. There are no flashy changes that force viewers to pay close attention but the paced and controlled movements make people hooked. The effects are strengthened by the appropriate choice of light and music. I think this is an exemplar of kinetic installation supported by usage of light. 

Project Description

I got my initial idea from David C. Roy’s piece called “Duality”. 

He detailed the three balances he tried to achieve: visual, simple and patterning which are definitely things for me to consider in my final work. He did not explain the meaning behind the name but I interpret it in two ways. First, just looking at the shape, there are two panels and their corresponding patterns interacting with each other. When they are apart, they are just on their own. But the interaction creates duality. Second, the patterns changes with time as the speed at which each panel moves is different. Depending on the timing, we see different effects. This is like anything in life, depending on how we look at it, it can be negative and/or positive. 

For the final project, I want to take the general shape as an inspiration, added with my own understanding of duality and combine it with lights to put on an additional layer of visual complexity. For the motion part, I will be using motors instead of Roy’s secret method of winding. 

For the motion part, I will be using motors instead of Roy’s secret method of winding. This is because first I do not have his knowledge, second by using motors I can create a generative composition. Since the panels have to move at different speeds to create changing patterns, at least two motors are required. For the light part, I will use either analog or digital LED strips. The specific way of using the lights such as where to put them and what patterns to pick is not determined. I would like to test things out once the prototype structure is done before making a final decision. At this point, I consider the motion part as the primary characteristic and the light part a supplementary aspect of the project. 

Production Schedule

April 25: Buy materials 

April 27: Start designing prototype of the final structure 

April 29 & 30: Use 3D printing and/or Laser cutting with different materials to see the effects. 

May 1 &2&3: Experiment with motor(s), see how the two panels interact and the patterns create with the motors on

May 4&5: Add LED lights on, develop code for lights

May 7&8: More testing with colors, patterns and speeds;

Finalize size of the structure

May 9&10:  Find the best way to display the project 

May 11—May 14: More testing and adjustments