Above images show the results of my four prism tests. Upon observing from various angles, how different types of glass prisms would present the same motion picture, it seemed as though the pyramid shaped prism (bottom left) demonstrated the best results.
This experiment is the sequel test to Prismpod test 001* For this test, I replaced the rectangle prism with triangle one. Personally, I felt as though that this shape created far more interesting reflection comparing to the prior, however, I would like to further experiment with a dorm shaped as well as a triangle with 4 reflecting surfaces.
I run a quick test to see how a motion picture playing on a LCD screen would look through a prism.
On that note, I followed the same procedure as my first Prismpod test, however, this time, I placed a video footage inside of the rectangle.
Upon attempting to capture the moving images from various angles, this exact position was the most I could observe the interesting reflection created by the prism. In that sense, this rectangular shaped prism may not be cut out for the intended light installation.
Last but not least, I would like to note the solution for the technical difficulty that I encountered while exporting the base video to iPod, so I won't repeat that struggle ever again. (It was rather sluggish of a media student, it took me a while to figure out converting the video to play correctly on the iPod.) When I tried to import footage (both H.264 and MOV.) straight from my computer to the device, iTune constantly gave me an error message saying "cannot be played on this ipod." After a numerous trials and errors, I came upon a method that worked the best for this particular case; Export the 960×640 footage as MOV. format > Open it with Quick Time Player > Under "Share" manu, choose iTune > import the footage to iPod
I created a kaleidoscope, in order to experiment with multiple mirror effect, as well as symmetrical oscillation patterns that could be created by it.
A kaleidoscope is a tube-shaped optical instrument with a rotating end piece, which contains loose, colored objects. It was initially invented by Scottish inventor, David Brewster, as a scientific tool for the study of polarized light and later copied as a toy.
The tube is commonly constructed with three rectangular mirrors, therefore, I constructed a triangular tube with 3 slices of rectangle-shaped cardboard with mirror stickers on, and placed various colorful objects, such as rubber bands, circuit strings, prisms, gummy bears and glitter glues, on one side of the tube. On that note, the above images show the result of what I observed when I looked through to one end of the tube, where the objects were placed. More precisely, I saw the light entering the other end of the tube and the objects inside were presented as colorful, geometric patterns due to the reflections in the mirrors. Twisting the end piece made the objects tumbled and resulted in further presenting varieties of color and patterns.
In conclusion, this visual effect resulted in generating the idea of ひかりの標本 (Hikari no hyohon), which is Japanese for “luminous specimen”; sealing light source inside of a prism as if it were a specimen. On that note, my next step is to utilize my initial concept of replacing the physical light with digital media solution to design a mock-up, which will be constructed with a prism attached to a LCD screen, and the animation is projected on the prisms’ surfaces from behind.
I have been contemplating on bathroom illumination possibilities for quite sometime. I initially thought of experimenting with conventional and safe lighting solutions, such as using several types of LED to create a media facade-like lighting source and modifying its ambient effects. In that sense, my mock-up would have been created with an arduino powered 8X8 LED Matrix with some processing programming, however, more I think about it, it appeared to be so redundant to say the least.
In that sense, I have decided to take a little bit of a risk. Going back to my first idea of replacing the physical light with digital media solution, I thought of combining the projection mapping technique and the characteristic of prism to create a light installation. Thus, accordingly, the above sketches illustrate the configuration of my new mock-up idea.
The prisms are attached to a transparent or 2 way-mirrored surface, and the animation would be projected on the surface from behind. Following my experiment with Prism and iPod touch, I'm also considering the possibility of LCD screen use.
As a continuation of the previous prism experiment, I projected a short animation sequence, created with After Effects, on the prism. During the shooting process, I also shifted around some DSLR settings to achieve electric visuals.
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