I've been hard at work lately working on our installation for Glow 2010 in Santa Monica this coming Saturday. It's been an intense past week weeks and I haven't had the time to update this blog with our progress. This morning Joshua Howell and Aaron Zeligs were quoted in an Los Angeles Times article about Glow. Here is the link: Glow 2010
Also please check out our new website for more project images, plus some other projects we've got in office. Popup Design
If you are in LA this weekend, come by and check out the event! I'm sure it will be a bit crazy, but there are some cool projects.
I did actually have chicken for dinner tonight, and it was delicious.
I received an email today from the City of Santa Monica informing me that my design was selected for part of GLOW 2010, being held on Santa Monica pier/beach. I co-designed the proposal along with my good friend Aaron who I knew from grad school and we're both quite honored and excited to be one of the selected teams. One of the exciting things about working in the public art realm is that it provides the opportunity to create experiential spaces without many of practical restrictions of architecture. If you are unfamiliar with GLOW, it is an all night festival held on the beach and consisting of dozens of interactive lighting based installations. Aaron and I were able to come up with a scheme that choreographed an experience for the visitor, without having to worry about long term durability, weatherproofing, seismic forces, etc. As an architect, I am interested in defining space, but the art arena seems to be an ideal testing ground for ideas. This installation will fall somewhere between an object (ie. sculpture) and an enclosure.
More musings to follow. Today is the first step in a long process. I will be sure to post updates along the way and show images/video of our process.
This is some of the code I am working on for the MFA project that I mentioned in the last post. Right now I simply have four photocells, each controlling an LED. Next week I plan to get one of these so that I can replace the lights with a triggered sound. This might require significant reworking of the code... we'll see.
First the video, then the code:
/* Created 11 Dec 2009 By J Howell modified 14 Dec 2009
*/
int ledPinA = 10; // LED connected to digital pin 10 int ledPinB = 11; // LED connected to digital pin 11 int ledPinC = 6; // LED connected to digital pin 11 int ledPinD = 5; // LED connected to digital pin 11 int val0; // define variable for photoresistor 0 int val1; // define variable for photoresistor 1 int val2; // define variable for photoresistor 1 int val3; // define variable for photoresistor 1 int ledBrightness; //
void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); // sets the serial port to 9600 }
void loop() { val0 = analogRead(0); // read analog input pin 0 val1 = analogRead(1); // read analog input pin 1 val2 = analogRead(2); // read analog input pin 2 val3 = analogRead(3); // read analog input pin 3
if( val0 < 400){ // fade in from min to max in increments of 1 points: for(int fadeValue0 = 0 ; fadeValue0 <= 255; fadeValue0 +=1) { // sets the value (range from 0 to 255): analogWrite(ledPinA, -(fadeValue0)); } } else{ digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW); delay(10); } if( val1 < 400){ // fade in from min to max in increments of 1 points: for(int fadeValue0 = 0 ; fadeValue0 <= 255; fadeValue0 +=1) { // sets the value (range from 0 to 255): analogWrite(ledPinB, -(fadeValue0)); } } else{ digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW); delay(10); }
if( val2 < 400){ // fade in from min to max in increments of 1 points: for(int fadeValue1 = 0 ; fadeValue1 <= 255; fadeValue1 +=1) { // sets the value (range from 0 to 255): analogWrite(ledPinC, -(fadeValue1)); } } else{ digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW); delay(10); } if( val3 < 400){ // fade in from min to max in increments of 1 points: for(int fadeValue0 = 0 ; fadeValue0 <= 255; fadeValue0 +=1) { // sets the value (range from 0 to 255): analogWrite(ledPinD, -(fadeValue0)); } } else{ digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW); } }
June 9/10 saw the first annual "Rumble" being held at UCLA AUD. All student projects from the undergraduates to the graduating third years were on display and the entire architecture building was turned into a big gallery. Many alumni, local architects and a handful of "stars" made it to the opening show on Monday night. I think everyone was a bit apprehensive in the weeks leading up to rumble as to whether such a large scale operation could be pulled off successfully. Despite a minor few equipment problems everything went very smoothly and the actual event was deemed a success by all in attendance.
I'd like to extend a special thanks to everyone in the Sotamaa research studio, and especially my group partners for their hard work in both completing their own studio projects, but also in setting up the studio's exhibition.
A few images and video from the interactive installation I am working on with two other UCLA students. Using code written in processing, the servos will be controlled through an ultra-sonic proximety sensor. The box for the installation is divided up into 5 zones, each with its own servo. A single sensor is able to control behavior for all 5 servos separately based on distance of an object (person).
First day of classes were today, and it looks like another hard hitting line up. For studio I have Hitoshi Abe and we will be travelling to Tokyo for ten days at the end of January/early February. The research studio with Kivi Sotamaa will also be continuing, but now we will be moving into digital and physical techniques and less research. As electives I will be taking theory with Sylvia Lavin, and possibly a directed study with Marcelyn Gow that will construct a small scale installation involving scripting, and computer controlled interactivity. To top everything off, there will be several short workships/seminars that I am looking forward to. In February there will be a week long design charrette led by several young Japanese architects, as well as an advanced rendering and scripting seminar led by a person from Neil Denari's office. More to come on that later...
I've never posted images of the final installation of "Eviscerated Gloworm" at the LACE Gallery in Hollywood. Below are a few images from opening night, memorial day weekend 2007.
I haven't been able to post for a while, the past two weeks have been incredibly busy trying to get our installation ready. After many nights of three or four hours of sleep, plus a couple all nighters, we successfully installed our project in Silverlake yesterday for the Nokia photoshoot. This was a sort of warm-up run for the final installation on May 25th, but it allowed us to complete fabrication and work out kinks in the lighting and connections before the piece went up for public display. I'll be posting photographs of the final construction process as well as the finished installation this evening.
