Project one:

(colaboration with James, Isabelle, Laura)
Technology used: DMX lightings, TouchDesigner



In situ:
The door opens from the inside, and we are let in one by one. The space is filled with soft darkness, but I quickly notice those dim pillars of light in various parts of the room. Outside of the pillars, the environment is ambient and calm, not dark in a scary way. There is a noisy sound coming from across the door.  The sound is obnoxious. As I approach it, I also feel the cool and strong gusts of air: there must be an air blower. It’s a cool day, so I chose to walk away from the air source, not towards it. The sound is also unnerving and annoying, I want to get away from it as soon as possible.

I see before there is a line of large lantern-like structures. They appear to be placed in a diagonal, linear fashion that leads me to the opposite corner of the large room. The loud sound, the air, is blowing the first few lanterns in this line, together with a crisp and melodious ambient music, those tubes in line looks like a giant wind chime. The lanterns emit a dim glow. But it’s not just a uniform glow. The lanterns emit a kinetic diamond-esque reflection on the floor. As the air pushes the lanterns, the reflections dance lightly on the floor. I want to approach these lantern-like structures. The first few are moving too much from the air; instead I just watch them and their reflections on the floor. The diamond-like images move back and forth, constantly shifting.

These lantern-like pillars stretch from the ceiling, but they don’t all end at the same length. Some are nearing only 1 foot off the ground while others look 6 feet in the air. I am nervous to approach them. They seem only wide enough for my head; structures that might induce some sort of claustrophobic flight. Looking inside, reflective light looks like a chaotic light field, but when my eyes adjust to the brightness, I see a galaxy. The reflective material presents a kaleidoscope image of the lights above and is beautiful and mesmerizing. It does not erase this tight feeling though, only my head can fit through. I can’t see what’s outside the tube, but my body can feel it. I hear as a classmate arrives next to me; there’s a loud crinkle that arises around my head when they attempt to fit my head into one of the structures lower to the ground. Once they have their head inside, I can tell because the loud sounds have ceased, our bodies are close, but not touching. This is uncomfortable. I want to see inside and enjoy this image, but I’m worried about bumping other people. Wondering how my body appears outside the structure: I have no control over this image.

Finally, I can hear and see that the rest of my peers have entered the room. I’ve explored each “lantern”. I retrace my steps and watch as other people begin to experience the lanterns: watching the reflections, moving the lanterns, and sticking their heads in the structures. Again I watch the reflections; they are mesmerizing. Curious about the sound now, I walk back to the air blower, sticking my face and hands in the cool air. A sensation I wouldn’t expect, but I enjoy the sensorial feeling. As I’m doing this, I realize someone walking back behind the black curtain at the end of the lantern path. It appears unlit, but I follow.

Behind is another lantern, but it is much larger. Maybe 3 ft in width, it appears that multiple people could fit inside. This lantern also reaches nearly to the floor. Barely any light bleeds out the bottom. The diamond-like reflection is barely visible. I’m in the room with my peer and I see them lift off the side and crawl in. I swiftly follow. Inside we stand shoulder-to-shoulder. With no sound of the air blower, I can now hear my breath and the breath of my peer as we gaze up into this galaxy of light. Outside the lantern, the faint sound of ambient music presides. It feels meditative and less chaotic than where we began.

All of a sudden, the light outside shifts. As I am looking up, I can see another light outside our lantern has switched on. Curious, I crawl back out. A bright light has been switched on behind the large “lantern” and the black curtain is drawn back. My large shadow appears on a white paper curtain that now replaces the black fabric. I step aside and dance around, casting my large shadow on the paper.

More people make their way into this “room” that has been sectioned off by the paper. More and more people try to explore the large lantern. Trying to reach the capacity of that little space. I notice that around the lantern there are floor cushions, so I sit and watch as people try to find their way around this large structure.

Eventually, everyone has experienced the large lantern and we sit in a rough circle/group around the lantern.  The dynamics of shadows on the paper wall began settling down. Click. The bright light was switched off, and the adjacent room lit up. I am curious about what is happening there, so I stand up and chase the light. Then the next room lit up in the direction I’m going for, then the next… Until I reach the exit, and I know it is an end.

Project 2:

(colaboration with Emily, Matthew, Julia)
Technology used: DMX lightings, TouchDesigner

in situ:
I am told to take off my shoes at the entrance, into the pitch dark of the unknown. I have no clue what this space is for and what I should do to interact with it. The next second someone sneezes, and right following that, the space lights up a bit. But I am still confused, is this space gradually lighting up by itself? …Or it is controlled by sound. I walk up to the light source and clap in front of it. It lights up even more! Other people around me see that and start to gather around. We make more sounds to make it brighter and brighter until we can see the whole space.


I find that there are three more lights, one is lit up, maybe because of the noise we made earlier. The other two are still not turned on. We spread out to check them out. I go to an unlit one, I stump in front of it, nothing happened, I clap, still nothing. Several people come around, and I am not sure if it will actually do anything, so I leave my space for them and go to the next unlit light. People there already figured out that with different volume of the sound, the color of it will change. I play with them for a while, and go to the lit one. On the way there, someone starts singing. With a few high notes, the light turns on for that unlit light! I decide to go there and sing my lungs out to hit more high notes and see what will happen. But I am too shy to start singing, as it is kind of an embarrassing thing to do in public. But I am dying to experiment with it, so I begin singing. As I am trying out, more people gather around and try out with me. We are creating some wired avant-garde music. We have fun, and I decide to check the last one out. It is turned off right now with all the loud noise we are making. I think I know how it works now. I cease to go there, and stop in the middle.

Project 3:

(collaboration with James, Johnny, Isabelle)
Techonlogy used: DMX lighting


Plannings: 
Outside: separate people into smaller groups, and make them wait

Initial entry: dark? Dimly lit, loud, chaotic energy? Where are you going? Overwhelmed, compressed, hopefully, people will take different routes

Between: silhouette, wind sound attracts. A breathing point

2nd phase: light attracts, shadows, wind, into a more loosely weaving place, a sense of nature

3rd phase: individual temples in clusters, different height, reflective inside, round/square, giving people a sense of separation while together physically

• Isolating
• Claustrophobic
• Hypnotizing dazzling

Because of the dimming light, it’s hard for me to see what exactly the path will be behind each paper, giving me a feeling that the structure will be similar to a labyrinth. All my group mates are moving forward, but they take very different approaches. Those all only made of papers, I tell myself, there should be no way to trap me here. I just choose a new approach as well. As I enter this paper forest, I have become a little bit lost in this place. The background noise is getting louder and louder and the papers are dancing because of the wind. The whole setting is making me have a feeling that something stressful is pushing me to the ground. But the lighting condition is getting brighter, I can even see the shadow of my group mates who have already passed the labyrinth. Removing the last piece of paper, I finally get out of it and enter an empty area.