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TITLE
Counting Stars✨
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Counting Stars✨ is a dodecahedron light sculpture that projects constellations based on twelve sun signs using three halogen lights. The sculpture is hung in the middle of a dark room, so people can see the signs projection on every side of the room.
I’m always fascinated by the starry sky and the universe. So for my project, I want to utilize the light and an enclosed room to create an immersive environment to let the audience experience the starry sky and constellations. In addition, it’s rare to see a starry sky in the cities because of the haze and pollution, it is nice to create a place to let the viewer enjoy the beauty of nature.
Perspective and Context
In The World of Perception, Ponty states that:
Space is no longer a medium of simultaneous objects capable of being apprehended by an absolute observer who is equally close to them all, a medium without point of view, without body and without spatial position – in sum, the medium of pure intellect.(54)Provide that we restore a particular quality to its place in human experience, the place which gives it a certain emotional meaning, we can begin to understand its relationship to other qualities which have nothing in common with it.(60)Each one of them symbolises or recalls a particular way of behaving, provoking in us reations which are either favourable or unfavourable.(63)
In sum, space and the object that fulfill the space achieve each other to enhance the experience of the project. They are not independent but irreplaceable for each other. In addition, every aspect of the project actually has some relation with the audience, either recall, provoke or repress some reactions within the viewer. So for my project, to make the whole scenario a place that gives the audience the dreamlike feeling, an enclosed space might be necessary. In addition, the scale of the project also matters. if it’s too small, it might be very nice to display and look at, but cannot provide the audience with an atmosphere or environment to experience.
DEVELOPMENT & TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
PURCHASE STRONG LIGHT
To light up the whole room, I need light that is strong enough, so I went to the Electronic Market to purchase three 12V 20w halogen lights and one 12V 50w halogen lights.
There are not many resources online to make a dodecahedron box, so I used Joinery to add the connection between each side.
DIFFERENT TOLERANCE
According to the Joinery instructions, the tolerance determines the tightness of each side, however, I laser cut different tolerance with different materials, but nothing change, so I just set the tolerance to 0.
DIFFERENT MATERIALS
I tried with two types of materials, the wood, and acrylic. And I found out the wood material gives the project a handcrafted feeling. Besides, the acrylic glue can make the project really messy because it melts the plastic to glue them together and it can melt the surface of the project easily, so I chose wood in the end.
Then I tried the prototype with the light, however, the result was not that ideal – it can only light up a limit space, if I put it inside a big room, the projecting was not clear at all.
LASER CUT LARGE SIZE
According to the pinhole imaging, I thought probably because the box was not big enough, so I laser cut a twice bigger box the next day and it works.
THE WHOLE SCULPTURE
After testing every aspect of the sculpture with the prototype, I started to make the whole sculpture.
1⃣ Laser cut all the side of the sculpture.
2⃣ Glue them together.
DIFFERENT HOLES
To hang the project in the air, I measured the eye hook and test with different size of the hole and found that 0.52cm radius is the most suitable.
ARDUINO
I connected four halogen lights (one 50 watts, three 20 watts) to the Arduino and make them face four directions. For the coding part, I tried to light up each light every time (if more than one light up, there will be double images on the wall) and let them fade in and fade out in different speed each time, so the projection will be moving around according to the code.
Code: Github
LIGHTS RUNNING TIME
I tested with the lights and intended to let them run for more than one hour to see if it can handle it. However, the transistor on the 50 watts circuit smoked after 20 minutes. So I took the 50 watt light away in the end. The three 20 watts light worked well.
HANG IN THE AIR
After finishing the project, Eric helped me hang the sculpture on the ceiling. The project is in the middle of the room – the audience can experience it in any way, walk, stand, sit, or lie on the floor.
PRESENTATION
The project was displayed in the middle of 821, an almost square room. I rotated the robe a little bit so that the sculpture rotate back and forth when hanging in the air. The audience understood my project and reacted better than I expected.
I gave the audience a hand out which indicate what birthday represent which star sign before they enter the room. I think I could give them the hand out later after they enter the room so that they can enjoy the starry sky first then find their own constellations.
CONCLUSION
I learned two important things this time.
1⃣Making prototypes is so crucial for installations.
I can never be confident enough to make the whole sculpture if I did not know there are more lights available using Arduino that is much stronger, test with different materials and glue to see which one works better for the sculpture (hold heavy things), try different values to see if it change the tightness of the connecting point, try with different hole size to see which one fits better. It is because all the prototypes I did that make the final project step into right rails.
2⃣Always have a plan B, C, D.
Before I went to the Electronic Market, I do not know if we can find a suitable light there. But if I could not find it, I will use the light strip and choose to display in a smaller room. Also, before laser cutting a bigger prototype, I did not know if the projection can be clear in a bigger room, so I thought if the bigger room would not work, I will laser cut a relatively bigger box to accommodate the small sculpture and the audience can look inside. (Luckily, the next day, I laser cut a bigger size and found out it worked – the most difficult part solved). And also if I can not find a place to hang it on the ceiling, I thought I might put it on the display table in the middle of the room or hang it on the ladder, or two tripods with one stand in the middle.
For further improvement, I would like to add more colors(carefully)/changings to the light and probably add a projector inside it to project something through the gap. And adding motors to make the sculpture rotate gradually instead of rotating the robe.
In general, I think the final product met my expectation and the display room was also very nice to enhance the audience’s experience.
And I can never finish this project successfully without help.
Special thanks to Professor Eric Parren, Leon Eckert, Leon Lu, Andy, Nick.
