Window, Mirror, Screen: An Installation

I finally worked out all the kinks with my installation piece for Borrowing Light. From broken fluorescent bulbs and getting the right projector to locked doors with alarms and blown out circuits, it was a bit frustrating. But I got there in the end. When I started documenting the piece, I fell in love with individual pictures. So here are two parts of the installation in images and a video of the third part.

My goal was to use a bank of windows as a window, a mirror, and a screen.

This section of the windows is acting as a window. At night you see your own reflection in the window because it's light inside and dark outside. To reverse this, I added light outside so that the wall becomes the focal point of the window scene.

Outside, the window does the opposite, acting as a mirror and shielding the view of the interior. From this angle, the whole panel looks black.

If you get a bit closer to the window, you can make out what is going on both inside and outside--the bricks from outside sit on top of the interior image.

On one section of the windows I used a rear projection (projected from outside onto the back of the glass) to turn the windows into a screen from inside. Note: There is something wrong with the video, I can't get it to load.

In this section of the installation I enhanced the reflective quality of the windows by adding more light. Normally the windows are already reflective indoors, but they are even more effective with the added lights.

From outside there is a very clear view of the interior.

Sun's Path June to December

Precedents for Installation

I can't embed this video, but it's is a time lapse of a building's exterior throughout the day and night as the reflections change.

And this is a video of fireworks reflecting on a building.


Time lapse of buildings.

Precedents for Installation

1 Minute: LAX Night Window, Reflection, Sniff from michaeljohnmuller on Vimeo.

Indoor reflections interacting with an exterior environment.

Video Document of 'within' (A Public Art Installation. Toronto Canada, 2009) from jol thomson on Vimeo.

Rear projected video on building.

TonhalleLATE from Projektil on Vimeo.

"Virtual Windows"

Windows from Dana Kash on Vimeo.

Rear projections through building windows.

Amy Yoes' "Street-level" Night View from Art in General on Vimeo.

Light Installation: Trials

10PM Indoors, 3 lights, Focus: Down

10 PM Indoors, 3 lights, Focus: Down

10PM Indoors, 2 lights, Focus: Side

10PM Indoors, 2 lights, Focus: Out

The upstairs location wasn't working so I moved downstairs and had a lot more success.
Indoors, 2 lights, Focus: Out

Indoors, 2 lights, Focus: Side

Indoors, 2 lights, Focus: In
Least effective method of lighting.

Experience from outside. Reflection is stronger in lit panel, but still present without lights.

Inside vs. Outside
Having the sections side by side isn't as strong of an effect.

Indoors, Fluorescent Light, Straight On

Indoors, Floor light

Indoors, Floor light

Outside

Outside lights from inside

Donna outside with lights filmed from inside.

Inside lights forming an 'L'

The Process of the Canopy

This process has been a little crazy, and a little overwhelming, as I realized that I’m building an entire canopy structure basically within a week. Let’s break it down.

The canopy itself, or “screen” to catch the shadows throughout the day:
Realizing that it wouldn’t be possible to span that large of a distance with a single piece of fabric, I decided to break the design into 3’ wide stripes. I’m alternating between two kinds of white fabric- muslin, and I-forget-the-name-offhand-but-it’s-shiny. The nice thing about alternating is that the difference in appearance is subtle- they’re both white, one just has more sheen than the other- and it lets me save money by using a lot of muslin, which doesn’t look quite as nice but is much cheaper. Having both materials side-by-side will help to highlight the way each one captures the shadows, since they are distinctly different. I’m hoping some shadows will cross both kinds of fabric and make this difference even more obvious. I bought the fabric, and started sewing yesterday, and wow. This is a lot of fabric.

The structure, or “branches”


Originally I was just going to pull the cloth taught between the trees, but this puts a lot of stress on the fabric. Instead, I’m going to create a slightly arching structure by bending metal poles into a branch-like pattern, and sewing the metal poles between layers of fabric.
This will (ideally) support the fabric better, and by using forms that are drawn from the surrounding site, will keep a sense of unity between the project and the site.

The acrylic leaves and net, or “light filters”

I want to mimic the way light passes through leaves, and especially like the effect when light passes through the lasercut leaves and is projected onto the cloth screens. To keep this effect in my canopy, I plan to weave the acrylic leaves through a bird net (should arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed!) and suspend the leaves/net slightly above the canopy, like so:


In this way, I’ll capture both the shadows from the surrounding trees, and the fascinating light patterns through the acrylic leaves. If it turns out the way I hope, it’ll be a strange combination of the familiar/natural and the oddly unnatural.

One last thing- I may have to cut holes in the fabric to keep the wind from ripping it apart, and I was thinking of cutting out holes shaped like tree branches (resembling the structure) but then sewing fishing line across the holes. This would keep the fabric from drooping down, but still allow wind to pass through. What do you think?

Progress

This is when I was playing with the fiber optics in class on Monday. I manipulated the optics so that they would clearly show light all the way through the fiber. This image is when I both shaved and notched the fiber optic. Pretty good results!

This image shows how much light is still traveling completely through the fiber optic, even after being manipulated. Even in a light environment, its still a lot!

This is showing the fiber optic just notched, which in my circumstances, works the best. It gives a really great lineation to the light, and gives me exactly what I want to be able to create some sort of structure with the light still being able to travel completely through the fiber optic while being somewhat bent.

Sorry its so shaky! But this is all of my devices on the pond on Tuesday night, before it was raining! I attached all of them to a line, and the lines got caught so they wouldn't move as far as i wanted them to. I think I will change the string to a fishing line so that they get less tangled and move easier in the water. They are floating in these plastic food containers that seperate the devices from the water, and are clear so that they do not disturb the reflections that I want too greatly.

This shows one individual device by itself. My camera couldn't capture the reflections too well, I have to fiddle with the exposure and such and couldn't quite capture them.

The things I have to fix is the fiber optics staying attached to the light (I was having trouble with that while in this process), and the line that I use to deploy them upon the pond. Otherwise everything looked pretty good, and was successful in terms of the light's interaction with the water's surface.

To be honest I'm not sure who I should be giving credit for this photo, but it was included in a post for an event called "Crossing the Visible" hosted by HOUSE in London.

I like it because it highlights a naturally occurring phenomenon (reflection). The light of the window is cast upon the wall and the floor. We can see the reflection of the window light cast on the wall and the reflection of the light cast upon the wall, on the floor.

The SOMA restaurant/bar by a+i architecture

The entrance to the bar is a progression through a dark space to prepare the viewer's eyes. These irregular perforations allow light to pass through giving the light beams tangibility as they reflect to our eyes off haze and dust floating in the air. I don't necessarily like how it is used in the space, but I like the effect and the possibilities it suggests. Find out more about this project here.

On the same note, I'm looking at Islamic architecture, both past and contemporary works, which make use of a screen. It is the merging of two interests: the tangibility of light in it's reflection and the controlling it's admittance into a space. Here's another light blog worth visiting: click me.