We decided to switch gears from our mood sky idea and pursue a different idea where a large piece of fabric will “scoop up” LED “stars” like a net. For our proof of concept prototype, we tried to create a miniature version of our installation, experimenting with different fabric shapes and materials for the net, and different color of the LEDs.

We discovered that we needed a flexible yet dense fabric, since the muslin was too rigid and the silk was too transparent. We settled on the a stretchy T-shirt material since it was soft enough to bend/fold easily but also dense enough to diffuse the LED lights.

We tried some different fabric shapes, but decided that the square shape was best out of the ones we tried. This is a video of the square net folding as we raise and lower it towards the LEDs. We noticed that we shouldn’t let the fabric touch the LEDs since then the color is not as diffusive.