Title: My Universe
Author: Yanran Bi(Candy)
Date: April 17,2019
Professor: Eric
Project Description:
“My Universe” is a kinetic light sculpture. It consisits of three ball-shape hollow planets which allow light to come through. Each planet is built out of MDF material with circle struture only. Inside, planets are filled with white cotton that covers the led strips. The soft white cotton provides a pleasant contrast for MDF. LED light fades in and out through the cotton softly at different speed for each planet.
My Universe is build upon my fascination with those shining planets in the grand universe. I read the book of “The Little Prince” years before, in which the little prince lives with his rose on his tiny planet. I could hardly tell lots of details in the book, yet I do remember how the beautiful fantacy impressed me. These planets are so far away from each other in the universe yet through light they communicate in their way. For me, they are the symbol of beauty and contains some sort of loneliness. On these planets of various sizes lives my own “little prince”.
Through “My Universe”, I intend to express my subtle feelings towards those lonely and beautiful planets. Additionally, I am expecting internal communications between this project and the audience–not a specific feeling, but simply some time when the audience is looking at the sculpture without disturbance of any kind.
Perspective and Context:
“My Universe” is a project about light and kinetic art. The sculpture itself is not kinetic yet the light changing makes the scuplture alive. The lights fading in and out and shed its pretty glow on the board. The glow gets bigger and smaller along with the light and the three planets seem to communicate through the light. There are three form of lights within the project: gentle light come through the fluffy cotton, some light dots of the led strip imitaing stars and the glow shed on the board. Together they serve the concept of “organic planets”.
There are lots of artists worldwide trying to make something organic through non-organic materials. “Nature of code” for example imitates forces in real life through coding. “My Universe” is taking the same trial as it tends to build its own organic space through light and sculpture.
Development & Technical Implement:
Link on Github:
https://github.com/yb924/KL-My-Universe/tree/master/kinetic_light_midterm
Inspiration:
Before I really start to do my project, I searched lots of light sculptures that others did on Pinterest. Among all, my favourite is this project. It consist of several light sculptures hanging from the ceiling which create some raining effect. The dynamic light effect it seems to contain fascinates me. This project inspires me to create my own rain drop using fabrication and light.
Design:
My original idea is to build a installation that would create some raindrop-like shadow on a plain as mentioned above. To create such effect, I design the structure of my project in AI. I thought it would be interesting to have the sculpture shaped in a ball for ball shape seems to have more possibilities and flexibility, also it matches with the concept of “raindrop”. I designed the sculpture only in circle structure to keep the consistency. The inside part is meant to be hollow so that I could insert light inside. For the material, I desided to use the MDF for wood-like material feels more organic to me than any other kinds.
Lazer cutting:
Then i drew the circles I need in AI for lazer cutting and have them cutted. I tested out both the 5mm and 3mm MDF. Idealy, I would like to use the thicker one so that my sculpture would be more stable yet it was hard to cut through even though the setting preference is set 5mm. Then I just switched to 3mm and thankfully it turns out good enough for this project. Some feedback from Eric on this stage of production is to use a spiral instead of the donut structure which would definitely be more convenient. Yet I finally keep my original idea for it allows more flexibility as I could change how many rings I want to use at any time, while spiral could not once I finished lazer cutting.
Idea chaging:
After having all the circles I needed being lazer cutted. While playing with the rings I got, it suddenly reminds me of the planets in the universe which I have long been yearning for. Without hesitation, I completely changed the original concept while keeping the same design. MDF somehow suits the concept of planets very much.
Sculpture building and light testing:
Hot glue gun is used to stick the circles the way I wanted. According to my design, I should have three light source. I chose the LED strip for I feel more comfortable with it and it is bright enough. I borrowed two LED strips and test out several lighting effects.
Then I insert the light into my sculpture and lazer cut a board to hide the arduino and breadboard. It turns out beautiful.
In terms of the the lighting effect, I tried out two different ways for adjusting the brightness. One to directly changed the brightness using built in function, the other is to gradually light up all more and more lights on the same stripe. I finally chose the first one as it gives more naturally effect.
Visual performance:
I then began to think about how I would like to hide the LED strips and the mark of hot glue. I searched in Taobao and ordered a special kind of clothing. However when it arrives, it is somewhat disappointing as it is way thiner and the holes on it are way smaller than I expected.
While doing the project in the studio, I suddenly saw the cotton in the drawer. I thought it might be a great way to use. I tear the cotton a lot so that it became fluffy enought to imitate clouds. I then full my planets with the cotton.
Final implement:
I deliberately leave some light dots uncovered by cottom so that it could give some star like feeling. I make the light fading in and out in white and set a color variable to change according to time slowly. The outcome turns really pretty. However the color value I set is not working so well. 
There is only a slight change in the color even though I added 50 each time it looped.
Basically, my universe consists of three parts: light, sculpture of three planets and the “clouds”. The planets are placed on a board which allows some shadow to shed onto. Lights fading in and out slowly. I made the distance between either two planets in the way their glow would cross(indicates the communication among real planets I mentioned before). Additionally, lights shines through the fluffy cotton that makes it more gentle. There is no completely dark for any of the three planets: they always maintain some light even though the value of brightness is real small. Audience could walk around the table to see the project and they are allowed to touch the cloud and plant and see how the planets lights up their hands.
Presentation:
The presentation happens in a dark room which is perfect for light project. We even have the display stand for presentation. Yet I could only set up my project next to the wall due to the length of power supply which I realized that I could just borrow a plug board after I finish presentation. I should have be fully prepared with the setting before presentation to make it better. The color doesn’t work as expected which is disappointing. Not even as good as my test before.
Despite the color and setting stuff, overall the presentation went well. Thanks to Yang, I got some really good photos of people interacting with the project by touching. One of the feedback I got is that the plants seems to be deserted and sad. As mentioned, I expect “my universe” to express my feeling towards the planets in the grand universe which are beautiful while containing some sort of loneliness. I am really happy that in some ways i successful convey the idea.
Some other improments considering the way to present is to hang the planets instead of placing them on a board since planets are actually floating in the space in real life. This also allows more freedom for the audience to walk around to experience and would really turn the project into an immersive light installation. Yet only until Yang’s presentation, did I know it is possible to hang things on the ceiling. I would really take this possibility into consideration for my final project.
Conclusion:
learningοΌ
During the three stages of research and concept development, project development as well as presentation. I learned through overcoming difficulties and thinking. My final concept for this project hasn’t been settled until I finished lazer cutting. I am glad that I always allow great changes even though I am in the middle of doing the previous idea and fianlly came up with “My Universe”. I feel that good ideas should always be taken seriously. A second take away is that one should always plan ahead. As for lazer cutting, I only booked one slot the first time yet I did not finish cutting in time and wasted 20 minutes of others’ times slot. Despite this, I did not finish cutting the material due to the problem with 5mm MDF. The second time, I booked 2 slots to ensure I would not affect others. Additionally, I somehow limit myself by thinking the way of “what I could do with things I already have” ranther than “what else I should get if I want to have this completed”. For example, for the presentation part, I should follow the thinking flow of “I want to hang the planets, so I need to find a way to hang” rather than “I do not know how to hang it so I have think of another way to present”. To achieve the best version of my project, I would be more ambious next time.
Reflection:
I did a good job with the visual performance of “My Universe” itself. I managed to develop it through adjusting and further developing my original concept. Also, I find a way to hide those LED lights as well as lots of wires. The best part is that I successfully convey my idea through the project itself without asking leading questions. However I do should have done better with thinking of the best way to present and really get my “color variable” worked. For future development, I would really like to see the project in a bigger version–to be more immersive and to engage audience with the specific atmosphere it creates.