Fibonacci Sequence in a Sunflower
Working on a such a personal project is pretty difficult, but it’s been totally worth it so far. After class the other day I was completely frustrated with my idea, convinced it was destined to be a failure, but a few of the comments I got in class were extremely helpful. Angela mentioned hearing the muezzin’s call to prayer from her apartment and thinking about how people can create their own individual private spaces for contemplation simply by performing simple rituals like rolling out their prayer carpets. Another thought from class has also been lingering, which is the idea that an actual structure seems like a burden. So, instead of building an actual structure, I’m going to try to create the same feeling of a defined, contemplative space by building a wall mounted light instead.
The basic concept for the project is still the same– part one is still a sensor that the user (someone who is grieving for someone who has died) carries with her throughout the day and activates whenever she feels a pang of grief for the departed (this part will be wired for the first prototype). Part two still receives the signal from part one and notes each instance of grief. But rather than a structure, part two is a wall mounted light behind a laser cut design of repeating patterns. The idea is that when the user returns home part two displays a small, bright light for each instance of grief that was noted by part one, centered in the circular parts of the laser cuts. In turn, each little light slowly dims while at the same time the area around it begins to glow with lots of smaller lights that show through finer laser cuts, ideally guiding the user through a process of letting go of those moments of grief. This weekend I’m figuring out what light sources to use (probably warm white leds), how to control their dimming/glowing, and sketching out the laser cut design. Here are a few sites that are providing some inspiration/reference:
Tom Gerhardt’s documentation for FireLight