Hannahk2 – Looking Outwards – 01 – [OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

The project that I chose is a light installation project by the Seoul based duo artists, Kimchi and Chips. The project creates volumetric drawings in the air, using hundreds of coordinated video projections. In this sculptural work, light projections are made to merge in a field of fog to form animated, physical shapes. 8 video projectors are split into 630 sub-projectors using a combination of concave mirrors– designed using artificial nature algorithms, and each mirror is computationally generated to create a group that comes together to form the single shape in the air. What inspires me about this project is the fact that these artists are basically materializing objects from light, something that is not exactly tangible. The result is surreal and visceral, due to the addition of sound and the set up of the installation. I also respect the exactness of the calculations required to make the projections work: to merge the light beams together, the path of each of the 16 million pixel beams had to individually be measured. The project could have been more effective maybe if they were able to create more complex shapes and movements, but it is extremely impressive already in the way that it is playing with the boundary between material and non-materials, and existence and absence. This project was part of a series of 3 works which materialize 3 dimensional sculptures through different uses of light. Other works in the series include showing depth with many illuminated nylon strings.

Here is the link: http://www.creativeapplications.net/vvvv/the-light-barrier-third-edition-drawings-volumes-in-the-air-with-light/