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We tried crossing two beams of light inside a block of aerogel, thinking it might somehow produce a brighter point in 3D space. It doesn’t. However, some beguiling effects can be obtained, in 2D and in 3D, using two projections onto a block of aerogel.
Perhaps reminiscent of dappled sunlight and silhouettes of passing strangers, this is actually two projections of Outtake – a version of Ghosts from 2003 – from different angles onto a small block of aerogel.
Also – rendering of the Mac dock into 3 dimensions
Miniature mockup adding realtime shadows
Still of Outtake projected onto aerogel.
Aerogel supplied by Airglass AB
A 3D visual deconstruction of time and space. Work in progress.
A camera feed is passed through physical space over time, creating imagery that contains fragments from a range of times simultaneously. Unlike a 2D image taken over a long duration – which would essentially be a blur – the time is ordered in the third dimension, as if time was flowing in a particular direction.
Seen from ahead, the image is superimposed on itself, similar to its 2D counterpart, but from other angles, the flow of time through space can clearly be seen. And from behind, time slowly fades away into the distance.
The project builds on ideas first implemented in squidsoup’s Freq2 – www.squidsoup.org/freq2
Discontinuum is a Squidsoup project, in collaboration with ETHZ and horao GmbH.
The Stealth Project, a 3 dimensional take on the classic game Connect 4 and inspired by the Cold War Modern exhibition, was premiered on 31 October at the Gamble Room, V&A, London. The project is a Squidsoup collaboration with Horao GmbH / ETHZ and uses the NOVA 3D LED grid.
Flickr slideshow here.
Our latest project, a collaboration with ETH Zurich and horao GmbH and featuring their wonderful NOVA 3D LED grid, will be premiered at the French Connection Friday Late at the V&A museum in London on 31 October 2008.
Planes, missiles and other hardware that deflect or otherwise avoid radar detection were key in the race for world supremacy. Detection avoidance, or stealth technology, was one of many ‘developments’ to emerge from the Cold War.
In the Stealth project, two grids of triggers target and launch missiles across an abstracted 3D space at each other, attempting to avoid radar detection and annihilate the opposition.
However, in contrast to the Mutually Assured Destruction madness of the arms race, the piece acts as a collaborative spatial musical instrument – each ‘missile’ emits sounds based on its relative position and the conditions it encounters along its trajectory.
The Stealth Project developed from research into the creative possibilities of volumetric, or 3D, visualisation techniques. Recent Squidsoup experiments using a Baby NOVA (the physical centrepiece of this project) suggested that this kind of three-dimensional light grid has considerable potential for abstract gaming applications.
Full press release here: stealth-text-final
The piece also uses 2x Monome 64 devices as control interfaces. These are handmade, beautiful and sustainably built.
Three days in Zurich experimenting with NOVA, a 3D LED grid system developed by ETHZ (Swiss Institute of Technology). Very interesting to see what works and what doesn’t. These images do not do the system justice: beside being 2D representations of a 3D visual, they don’t fully convey the shimmering beauty of NOVA, especially in the dark.
The ‘Baby NOVA’ is a 10×10x10 grid; this one was at Technopark, Zurich. The large one is a 50×50x10 grid, and is publicly viewable at Zurich Central Station.
Preliminary video rushes:
more about “The NOVA trials on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod
Fullscreen version available here.
More images and slideshow available here.
NOVA websites: www.nova.ethz.ch and www.horao.biz
We tried out a range of effects and ideas; mainly randomness, dynamic 3D geometry, and a combination of 2D and 3D imagery; using the 3D grid to represent 2D imagery (mainly from a webcam in these experiments), but using all of the voxels/LEDs,and focusing on a single ’sweet-spot’. The image is surprisingly clear from one viewpoint, but abstracted from any other position.
The large NOVA at the Central Station is relatively flat, and too high up for best results, but sweet-spot visuals and 3D geometries do still work, and have an extraordinary not-quite-there effect, as though they inhabit physical space yet are not there…
… exploring the magnificent light properties of Aerogel (see earlier post here). This is a weird and wonderful substance. Projecting through it is akin to projecting in a smoke-filled environment, but it’s a solid space. These images don’t do the physical reality justice. More soon.
This is a single module of the NOVA system, as seen at the Wired NextFest
more about “3D LED Cube Screen on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod
One way to control light in 3 dimensions is to put loads of lights in a space and control each light. I’ve always loved this idea ever since seeing the work of Jim Campbell. Although not 3D, his use of low resolution 2D grids of lights is highly evocative and beautiful.
Taking it into 3D causes headaches mainly because of the numbers of lights/LEDs involved. A 32×24 2D grid needs 768 lights; a 32×24x24 3D grid needs 18,432. Search 3D grid in Youtube and you get anything from 3×3x3 up to, currently, 16 cubed.
A nice example of a larger cube – apparently modular – is by James Clar
Seekway also make a 16×16x16 grid – see here.
NOVA, developed by the Swiss Institute of Technology, is an interesting one. A grid of LED clusters, 10cm apart and in 3cm spheres, in 10×10x10 modules.
There’s a 50×50x10 module at Zurich Central station.
NOVA site here
Image courtesy of this site
UVA have played with a more abstract notion of this idea with ‘Volume’:
as have Jason Bruges Studios with ‘Untitled Chandelier’:
and finally, also very nice is the work of Erwin Redl – this is his project Matrix II
Aerogel apparently holds 5 record properties, including the best insulator and lightest solid on the planet. It is used by NASA to collect space dust, and this in turn was an inspiration for Liliane Lijn to produce a piece of work using Aerogel at Riflemakers in Soho (London) – see here.
We have a piece of Aerogel, kindly provided by Airglass AB, and it is extraordinary stuff, and visually absolutely beautiful. Half way between glass and nothing, like a chimera or ghost.
It does weird things with light; it looks yellow outdoors and blue indoors; light reflects/refracts off it in interesting ways.
