Renders of My Final Design

These are renders of my potential final design. I say potential final design because I have to see how the material, text, and light react in the space, and if the result is the desired effect.

I was unable to create the environment of the space, as I am not experienced enough with Google Sketchup to capture the folds in the fabric and the effect of the coloured lights in the space.
The text will be printed on thin, delicate fabric and hung from the roof of the box. The lights will be positioned out of sight, reflecting on the material.
The exact positioning of the material is yet to be established, but can only be done when the space is complete.

Progress on the Set-up of the Space

A lot has had to be changed in the room as the original set-up was for studio spaces.

We have had to take down walls and black out the windows, as well as try and clean up some of the mess.

These images show what my space currently looks like, and where my space will be, in conjunction to the room. The pieces of wood on the floor outline the edges of where my box will be.
There is still a lot of work to be done as the box is yet to be built, painted and soothed out. The radiator will the covered by one of the walls, so it will not be visible on the inside of the box.
It will be a struggle to get everything completed on time as I have yet to test my final text and lights in the actual space, to make sure they work well in the space.

Plan for the Degree Show Space

This is, hopefully, the final plan of the layout of our room , 2.18

There have already been a lot of changes to the space, as some people changed their ideas for their work, so the layout had to be adapted to meet everyone's needs.

The Third Degree

This is the poster for our degree show.
Take a look at our work and read about what has been done already and what is happening next...
https://lincolndegreeshow2012.wordpress.com/

Text

Throughout my work I have used quotes as a base to my pieces of text. These quotes have usually been of pieces of theory said by theorists and artists that deal with colour and light.

As I have been struggling to write something for the final piece I thought I would revert back to how I always start a written assignment... find the quotes and use then to structure and form the written piece.
I was told that "if you can't write it better... use the quote" ...so this is exactly what I am doing.
By putting the quotes together I am manipulating them to say what I want to say, and changing their meaning slightly.

I also plan to add pieces of my own writing between the quotes, some making no sense in order to make it more confusing, and others to tie the quotes together.

The final piece will be called "A Dyslexic's Approach to Colour and Light Theory". I have chosen this title because the text will be my take on colour and light theory. As I have struggled to understand, and have the patience to read the books on colour and light theory, I am enhancing the difficulty for the viewer to read and understand the text, which is of quotes about colour and light theory. By manipulating the text through light and colour, I will cause the viewer to become confused and lost in the text, often having to start again, or lose patience as it takes so long to read the text. This is essentially like what it feels like to suffer from scotopic sensitivity, which is what most people with dyslexia suffer from. This sensation of moving, blurring text that takes a lot of concentration to read, is an insight into what sufferers experience when trying to read.
By making the text appear and disappear, I am emphasizing and exaggerating what I experience when trying to read out aloud.

Videos of Text on Material

As the photos don't really demonstrate what the atmosphere is like, here are some videos of the coloured text printed on the fine cotton.

This video shows the text reacting to the cycle "flash 7"

This one shows the light cycle on "Fade 7" slow.

This final video shows the light cycle on "random". This basically demonstrates all the settings on the remote control for the LED lights.

Text on Material

A quote by James Turrell, printed onto thin cotton.

This is the text I used for the Mini-Show, printed onto thin cotton.
I really like how well the cotton picks up the lights and how well the colour takes to the fabric.
I prefer this method to using paper.
Using material will also enable me to print on a larger scale, as well as having full and easy control over the colour. I also feel the material gives a more ethereal atmosphere.

Videos of the De-constructed Book in the Coloured Lights

As the photos can't really show the reaction of the colours to the coloured lights, I took some videos to show it better.

The videos show the reaction of the colours to the coloured lights, using different sequences of coloured light.

I am very pleased with how it turned out. I would like to develop this idea...but this may be something I will have to come back to...

De-constructed Book in Coloured Lights

These are some of the pictures I took of my de-constructed book placed under my colour-changing LED lights.

As well as cutting and crossing out sections of the book, I decided to colour sections in, using marker pens and highlighters.

I was really pleased with the images of the de-constructed book, so I wanted to see if colour could play a role in de-constructing the to.

The book became very difficult to read due to the darkness of the colours. The colours, however, reacted very well in the light.

Under the blue light the yellow highlighter pen glowed. Yellow usually looks black under a blue light...but for some reason the ink in the pen must react differently to the light waves.

De-constructed Book

I have been exploring ways of de-constructing text, making something that would normally be considered easy to read, difficult to read and understand through manipulating the text in various ways.

One of the ways I thought I could achieve this would be by literally de-constructing a piece of text. Here I have cut-out and drawn over sections of a book, de-constructing the text and making it extremely difficult to read and understand what the book is about.

I took my frustration out on the book, destroying it in order to create something I preferred more than the original thing. Being dyslexic, I have difficulty reading to this was my revenge. The end result tells a story that I understand very well, but that is now difficult for someone else to read and understand.

Caught by Chance...

When experimenting with the projector and the material there was, by chance, mirrors stacked together against the back wall, which captured the projection in a different way.
I really like how the mirrors have de-constructed the text and the projection, breaking up and piecing together sections of the projected Power Point.

Videos of Experiments

This is a video of one of my experiments using a Power Point projected onto various materials hung over a rope and set away from the wall.

This video shows the material structure more clearly. Here you can see how the material captures some of the light and colour of the text and distorts it slightly.

For this experiment I made the text multi-coloured to see how this affected the projection, and to see what effect the background colour had on the text.
I like how the coloured fabric/material is affected by the background colour as well as the text, and changes colour.

The videos capture the experiments much better than the photos, as they give more of an insight into atmosphere and experience of the experiments.

Experiments with Projector and Material

These are some of the images of the experiments I did using a projector and various materials.

I used black netting, a shiny orangey fabric, bubble-wrap and a piece of multi-coloured fabric, hung over a piece of rope, suspended between two easels.

Then I made the text multi-coloured.

As context of the text has not been established yet I have written "bla bla bla..." where the text would be displayed.
I am aware that this is not the correct spelling of "blah", but this is my way of spelling it, as it makes more sense to me.

This is the view from behind the materials.
I really like how the material holds the letters as well as letting it through to project onto the wall. I prefer the view from behind the materials because it feels like you are surrounded by the text, and it is more of an experience.

Mini Show

For our Mini-Show I built a white box, to represent the space in which I plan to exhibit my final piece in. Inside the box is a piece of writing, written in different colours. The LED lights are fixed, out of sight, onto the box and flash red, green, blue.

I chose this sequence as I felt it affected the text the most, and made it very difficult to read, which was my intention.

This is the same piece of text in the same box, just displaying a different light sequence.

My Colour Chart

In order to understand what effect the coloured light had on the colour on the paper, I drew up a "Colour Chart" where I filled in what the colours looked like under the different coloured lights.
This has helped me greatly in choosing the colours for the text, as I wanted to get the best contrast with the colours and lights.

Experiments Using the Architecture of the Building...

These are some images of the experiments I did around the Greestone Building using the two colour shadow technique and different materials and textures.
These experiments were initially made for my Elective Network "In More Than One Space" but as both the network and my project are connected I combined some of the techniques I learned to see if I could create something interesting that could aid my practice and investigation.

Dave's String Box

One of the other students created a space that was filled with black string stretched across the space. We both thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like if I placed my flexible LED lights in the space, between the string.
Although the effect was not very successful we got some nice photos.

Two Colour Shadow

Through my research I read about how it was possible to create a two colour shadow.

I was fascinated by the pictures and didn't really believe it was possible.

As there were no instructions how to actually create them I decided I was going to try and figure it out...and this is the result.

As I didn't have any strong spot-lights or a long enough extension lead, I wasn't able to create a big enough space to show a large shadow. This piece of masking tape, however, shows the effect very well.

I'm fascinated by shadows and this has increased my fascination. I find the effect really interesting and would like to experiment further with it.

Coloured Lights on Colour

Through my research I learned about how coloured filters effect how you see a colour. They can make some colours appear black, disappear or make them appear as a different colour.

I thought I would test this by seeing how my coloured LED lights would affect the colour on a piece of paper.

I drew multiple blocks of colour onto a piece of paper and watched how they were affected by the changing colour of the LED lights.

These are the results...

Under some coloured lights the colours on the paper appeared to expand and change colour, while in other coloured lights they appeared black, or even disappeared entirely.

I found this extremely fascinating and would love to find a way of using this in my work. As of yet I'm not sure how...but we will see.

First Experiments with LED Lights

These are some of the experiments I did that started off my exploration using flexible colour changing LED lights.

I find the LED lights look very commercial but with the piece of material over them, the colour is dispersed better and it creates a more ethereal atmosphere.

These flexible LED lights can be attached to any surface, bent into almost any shape and come with a remote control to change the colours. brightness and cycle. I love the brightness, control and flexibility of these lights and feel they are the way forward for my investigation.

To see how much the material dispersed the colour and light, I placed the LED lights on 2 plinths and hung the material over it.

Even though I only had 1m of the LEDs, they were surprisingly strong and lit up the large space quite well.

The material carried and dispersed the coloured light beautifully without blocking out too much of the light, so it was still able to light up the room.

Underneath the material the coloured light was very intense and more confrontational. As I would like to try and create a kind of experience using light and colour I feel the colour needs to be quite intense in order for it to leave an impression. So if I were to fill a space with strong colour I will have to use more LED lights.

I also thought about the visibility of the LED lights. For it to be an ethereal experience I feel the lights should be hidden. But if this does not work properly they should be fully visible and not hidden at all. I will experiment on both options and see which one works best with my developed idea.

Glow Sticks

When starting out my investigation to create a colour and light experience I took slow-shutter photographs of moving glow sticks.

Although the images were very interesting they did not really create an experience. All that could be seen were pretty images of what had happened with glow sticks in the dark room.

The making of the photographs were more of an experience then the end result. As this would be difficult to show, without using performance, a different direction had to be explored. This was, however, a good starting point and gave me a bit more of an insight into what my true intentions were.