Progress April 9th - 15th

I continued to spend a lot of time working with Tom Bray and Jeff Alder.  I had to drive out to Belleville Michigan to pick up some par 36 lights.  They were extremely expensive to rent but luckily Jeff had some colored gels I could use. 

I also had to go through 30 minutes of footage that the girl had captured from the colored water and oil experimentaion.  Then I had to re-learn final cut pro to edit the footage and create a loop so the same footage would replay itself on the projector.  Once I had the footage looped, I then spent time with Tom figuring out how to put the footage onto the projector, which projector to use, and how to mount it to the ceiling.  Mark Neilson and Tom Bray together helped me attach the projector to the ceiling of my installation space so it could be projected onto my pyramid inflatable.  I wanted this footage to be projected onto the pyramid shape in particular because the dream was that the pyramid shaped sleeping bags were floating in a shallow pool of water.  The projected images are intended to represent the reflection of water onto the sleeping bags.

It was difficult to figure out where each inflatable would go and if that would work well for the lighting.  We had to figure out a way the space could work where other lights would be shown on the different inflatables but still not effect how much you could see of the projection.  If the projection was too close to the other lights and inflatables, the viewers wouldnt be able to see the projection as well as if it was in a completely dark space.

Other minor details I had to figure out was how to hang the one Colorado inspired inflatable to the ceiling and have it be secure.  I ended up using tape but conceiling it with a strip of the blue nylon rip stop so it still looked finished.  I also used metal wire to attach the fan to the beam.  Complications started when the motor of the fan blew in the ceiling and I had to sator wires together to and attach two motors to the fan.  Luckily I was able to get the fan to start working again otherwise I would have had to reconstruct the airway to the fan along with finding a new fan that would attach the beam by the ceiling.  I also had to decide which gels would be good accent colors for each piece.  For the entry, I painted a stand black so I could place my postcards and business cards there so people could take them. 

Image 1: 3 tubes (that represent colored worms from my dreams) I inflated everything figure out how much space I had.

Image 2:  This was after the par 36 lights I had rented were in installed.  The installation was very stark without the colored lights and the projector.

Image 3:  Screen shot of the colored water and oil footage I edited and placed in the projector to be projected onto the pyramid.

Image 4: Pyramid Shape after the projector was installed and working.

Image 5:  Hanging inflatable after the colored gels were chosen and attached to the lights.  There were three lights placed onto this inflatable.  The three gel colors were orange, blue, and pink which helped bring out the imagery I had painted on using textile paints.  Behind this inflatable is a door.  The door bothered me a lot because it was so out of place.  Once the colored gels were in place, the shadow of the inflatable created a really neat pattern on the wall behind it and camouflaged the door. 

Image 6: Originally I was planning on having white lights on the tubes but I tested out some colored gels and decided I liked the color on the tubes better.  Plus the colored gels on the tubes helped darken the room so you could see the imagery from the projector on the pyramid better as well.

Logged Hours:
-Monday: 8:30am-12:30pm and 3:30pm-7:30pm (8 hours)- securing fans to inflatables, speaking with lighting company and visiting the hardware store
-Tuesday: 8:30am-5:00pm (9 hours)  Meet with Tom Bray to edit projector footage, attach projector to the ceiling, drive to Belleville to pick up lights, work with Mark Neilson to sort out other installation issues
-Wednesday: 2pm -9pm (7 hours) Meet with Jeff to figure out where each light should be placed, finish attaching all lights to the ceiling (luckily my Dad was there to help), and decide which colored gels to use.
-Thursday: 4pm-9pm (5 hours) Finish completing all details of the installation, then the motor in the ceiling fan broke, drove to several different stores to find new motor, finally met with Rodemer who was able to help me get two new transformers and sator wires together.  Then I had to re-attach he inflatable to the ceiling and finally I was done!!!

Total Hours: 29 hours

Image 7: Opening night!  Finally done! I also visited several of the off site galleries over the weekend.  It was great to see everyone's work finally completed.