This art installation was designed to represent the filling and outpouring of the users ‘light’ onto their world.  The user does not originate with the capability of spreading their light and must first go to the source to be filled.  They are then able to pour their ‘light’ and brighten a dark world. The user must continue to return to the source to be filled if they desire to pour more light.

 

I used generative code and physical computing to create an artistic representation of my life. My source is Jesus Christ and if I do not continually seek after His face and allow Him to speak into my life and fill my heart I am not able to speak into the lives of the people around me.

 

 

I desired this experience to be one of meditation and reflection. I desired the user to question what their source of ‘light’ is, and to become more self-aware of their impact on the world and the people in it.

There are two containers. Container 1, the ‘Source’ has a pulsating LED. Container 2, or the ‘Self’ has no light and needs to be filled by pouring Container 1 into Container 2. The top-down projection is now the users canvas with to spread his/her ‘light’ by pouring Container 2. The Arduino board and code recognizes these actions via tilt switches in both containers and sends the appropriate signals to both the container LED’s, increasing and decreasing of LED brightness to mimic pouring, and to the Processing code.  At the same time the infrared camera reads the position using brightness tracking of the infrared LED inside Container 2.  Processing then outputs the appropriate visuals in the appropriate location through the projector.  There are variables according the amount of ‘light’ that Container 2 received from Container 1 that change the visual output.