Day 5: (Tue Jan 28, Week 3) Light and Shadow

Notes for 2025-01-28.

Administrative

  1. IDeATe is organizing a fire extinguisher training session at 1PM on Thursday January 30 in Hunt A4 Near. This is the room adjacent to the sewing lab.

  2. Please follow through on laser cutter qualification (IDeATe Laser Cutters).

  3. Please check your door access using your ID.

Tentative Plan:

Thu Jan 30

Simple Armatures and Rigging

Tue Feb 4

Sewing Lab Tutorials

Thu Feb 6

Laser Cutwork

Thu Feb 13

Cardboard Flexures

Thu Feb 20

Tensegrity Structures

Agenda

  1. Very quick review (1 min/student) of Exercise: Locational Gesture. We will mostly just look at the clips without comment, but please be prepared to make a succinct statement: Exercise 2 Shared Folder.

  2. Brief overview of upcoming activities.

  3. In-class experiment: light and shadow. Hands-on workshop in small groups:

    • quick introduction to tools and materials

    • please clear the tables and stow your personal belongings near the cubbies

    • I’ll count off to divide you into groups

    • majority of class: collaborative shadow development and documentation

    • 1:30PM: mutual presentation of results (please show us a physical performance)

    • 1:50PM: cleanup: please help return all materials

In-class Light and Shadow Workshop

Inspiration: Hypergradient by Andreas Lutz

Objectives

  • playful collaborative discovery

  • identify a physical kinetic process or principle involving light and fabric

  • create and document a dynamic effect

Materials

  • selected fabric (also see Textiles Guide)

  • nylon monofilament line

  • lighting stands with Soraa 5000K LED bulbs

  • pins

  • bamboo sticks

  • rigging kit components

Instructions

  • meet your partners

  • select some fabric of interest

  • brainstorm a light shadow principle to explore

  • rig lines for movement and contol

  • test kinetic effects

  • reflect on your observations

  • refine an effect

  • record several short videos (e.g. 10-15 seconds)

  • please submit videos to Exercise 3 Shared Folder

Constraints and opportunities

  • you are welcome to borrow other lab materials, but please return them to where you found them

  • you are welcome to route line over the overhead grid for overhead suspension

Comments

  • This activity is partly an exploration of the materials, partly an opportunity to observe how the dynamic process of the fabric interacts with human input and constant illumination.

  • The audience of these experiments is actually the camera; please experiment with viewpoint.

Suggested starting points

  • grazing light

  • layering

  • shadowing

  • single-point rigging

  • multi-line harnesses

  • moire patterns