Hi all,
Xin Wei + Tech team, I shall carry on here the discussion re: touchOSC vs. Mira, as this relates to the lighting thread.
Matt and I have discussed taking on on everyday lighting starting now but carrying on through the Fall.
A la TML/iStage, I wanted to set up a Mira controller for the conference/lunch area with various presets: conference/lunch/partymode/moodlighting/dynamic. I had Mira in mind for its smooth user interface abilities, but I hadn't thought about using touchOSC (or OSC control, which is what I have found for free. Touch OSC appears to cost some $4.99). Either is ideal for scaling up. Using Julian's tml.dmx_op (+ or -), we can have multiple controllers going into the same DMX universe without discrepancy.
Here are some links to some encouraging models, some of them more theatrical or black box space-y, but all using conventional, everyday lighting apparatuses:
I'm not familiar with Riemannian's work, but Leibniz monads do seem to resonate with this kind of work. The monad as a unit of a kind of proto-systems theory provides an interesting model for assemblages of lighting, clusters and pairings of energies. I've seen the monad used, as Leibniz himself did, as a mode of viewing Western musical structures. However, most interesting are attempts to account for not only structure, but also for those timbral sonic parameters neglected by Western musical notation.
A parallel in lighting could perhaps be found as a starting point. musical structure might be akin to the spatial placement (topological or geometrical) of each light bulb. How they're structured, how they're bound to one another, how (if) they hang, what kind of bulb are we using, wattage, these are all important timbral considerations which define how each monad functions within the larger ecology.
This is also defined by movement/rhythm, a seemingly critical aspect to identifying relationships between monads (lights). This sort of work has also been done at TML-- my hope is that we can build on this together as we go forth over the next few months.
Matthew has done some great research into proper thread cables and light bulbs for the space, and has spec'd what promises to make the environment here a much warmer space. He has, with Luke, ordered supplies to create 20-30 lights. We should have them in ~7 business days and we can start throwing lights up. Ideal will be to pair this with the grid beam/ desks.
Other lighting possibilities are non traditional; Katie purchases an old-school overhead projector from Surplus, which I've hooked up to DMX. Interesting with this might be to find some materials (tissue paper?) which provide an interesting degree of translucence. Perhaps they could (Byron?) be manipulated by some servos. Robotic shadow puppets could also be an interesting endeavor. Byron also mentioned sand...
I would also like to continue to work with RGB LEDs, although there is a general fear of disco @ BY :-) Although the testing with LEDs has been admittedly "disko-orientiert," it would be nice to build them into window boxes. Using a simple pixel selector (thanks Julian), we can use incoming video feeds to detect sky hue and reproduce it in artificial windows (rectangular, oval, asymmetrical, as we please) which do not have to be on walls.
All best,
Garrett
On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 9:24 AM, Sha Xin Wei<shaxinwei@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,I’d like to propose a research sub-thread on lighting design for the Brickyard commons this Fallinspired and guided by specific practical and aesthetic intents.For foveal work, when someone is at a work siteLighting either work zones or ceilings with floor lampsBUT research goal is NOT to beam light onto objects or work surfaces a la electric era lighting design,but to emulate and learn from skylight and shafts of sunbeams(preferably natural light*) directed by agenciessumming both the individual as well as the ambient(e.g. outdoor sky colour temp => colour temp of interior washes,amount of activity in other parts of floor => …sound timbre => …. )Criteria: enlivening, and can serveeither focus foveal work,or support reverie depending onthe inhabitant’s phenomenological disposition, which can flicker.For night and default empty (when people leave the commons) lightinguse cloud of bulbs in amorphous, bunched constellationssoften by animation (ramped brighten / darken) and by slightly intermingling clusters.Clusters can brighten over the heads of people where they gather.(Use motion to initiate, presence to stay on…)Message and actual: even empty of people, the room is still working,research is still happening with non-human agencies.Below I include a snip from the Fountain to give a sense of volumetric densityand constant shifting of perspective that we can perhaps induce as people move through the space.This has direct, poetic connection with the conceptual work referencingDeleuze & Guattari, Leibniz’s monadology,Riemannian geometric approaches to design (special volume being prepared).But I’d like to clearly distinguish this from the iStage blackbox atmosphere, but we can usetheatrical technologies with non-blackbox results.Of course this will connect with everyone’s work in the BY,but who will be responsible for the research direction and push the aesthetic-technical work with me?Who can own this as a focus?Cheers,Xin Wei* It seems ethico-aesthetically ugly to use electrical light when we have so much sunlight to draw from. SIt takes careful thought to see how to respond to this subject to our practical time+budget constraints.