A Recent Proposal for the InLight Festival, Richmond, Virginia

I recently created these images as part of a proposal for the InLight Festival in Richmond, Virginia, sponsored by 1708 Gallery. For my piece, I mocked up a clock made of 3 rotating fluorescent tubes. The largest hand of the clock is an 8 foot long tube, followed by a 4 foot and a 2 foot. Although intuitively, we would expect the smallest to be the seconds, and the largest, the hours, I think it will better to look at if the biggest hand moves the most. Thus, I will reverse the order and make the 8 foot tube the seconds. The other main dilemma I am facing is how an onlooker will tell which side of the tube is which? How will we distinguish between 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock if the tube rotates from the middle? I’m going to continue thinking about this one.

Rotating Light at ITP Winter Show

I have finished the 3rd iteration of this project, a commissioned work for artist Gretchen Skogerson. It works well and is controllable over the internet via a Flash-based interface that runs on a local machine. The Flash program opens an XML Socket to a Lantronix Xport module that is attached to the light. The diagram on the bottom details the network model, as well as the mechanical workings of the rotating assembly.

Click on the image for a larger version so you can read the text

Light and Plants

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Rotating Fluorescent Tube – Version 3

In this iteration of the tube light project, I built a motor mount of steel sheet. The overall performance is pretty good and Version 3 is definitely a big improvement over the first two. This one features a mercury connector from Mercotac. I ran into some problems trying to get the tension of the chain to the optimal levels. Originally I tried to make it as tight as possible to avoid vibration and have the movement of the light be perfectly aligned with motor. This presented a problem though because the lateral pull on the motor shaft created a lot more torque. The motor only ran reliably at a low speed (although there was very little vibration). Loosening the chain made it run much faster and more reliably, although with more vibration. It seems there are a couple of ways to improve performance from here. 1. Use bearings to mount the shaft (in this one, shaft sits in a hole drilled in the steel, so there is some friction) 2. Use an additional, spring-mounted gear to keep pressure on the chain 3. Get a higher-torque motor

Click on the first image for video

Rotating Light Fixture – 2

My Rotating Fluorescent – Version 1

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Lozano-Hemmer’s Rotating Light Installation

The full movie.

Stepper Music

My stepper motor and board are capable of making some pretty cool noises. Really unexpected. Click on the image to see and hear the video.