Constant Brief 2 - Immersive environments

Lighting Design

     In this exercise, we are asked to document day and night time lighting state in our home and create 2 imaginary lighting atmosphere. There are only 1 natural light source in my apartment which is a glass sliced door connect to my yard on the south of my apartment. This is why the main light source in my room is artificial light. There are 7 light source inside my apartment. Here is a drawing in my journal showing lighting in my apartment (image I).

image I

     There are always have light in my room. As I am living with my boyfriend, he and I are also student here. We both study or work in the day time and doing assignments or have a chat with overseas friend at night. We always awake and there is always light on. After the sketching document and observing. I have set up a tripod at the entrance of my apartment and try to document the light situation in my apartment for 1 day (image II). I took a photo of the room every hour in a day from 00:00 to the next day 00:00. I have chose to put the tripod in the entrance because it is the only place which can capture the light in the whole space. Most of the light in my apartment is warm color light. There are just 1 light which is located on the wall next to my bed is white light. I like warm yellow kind of light in my home more than using white tone. As it give the whole space more homely feeling and also its more comfortable and relax. There are strong natural night in my room during the day time (Image III). I enjoy the brightness afternoon with my curtain up when sunshine on the wall and on my face.

     I have got some technical problem when I do this documentation project. I can't take a photo with my camera in such a dark area at night. I have tried many times and lots of different methods to solve this problem. And in the same time not affect the actual lighting condition. finally I try to turn the light on just for my camera to focus then turn it off and take the photo. I didn't have any training about using camera before. So I always have to face this kind of technical issues. I know may be it is not the best way of doing it but I find a way to do it.

image II

image III

     After documenting the night sources in my home, I start exploring different lighting effect in my apartment. For the two imaginary space, I have mainly use colour as an idea. Because the usual light states is really normal, and I got white as my furniture and wall colors. This space always make me feel boring. I always want to have interesting color lighting happen in my room. As different color always give you a different feeling for a space.

1st imaginary space

     For the 1st design, I have tried to create the atmosphere by using an app in my phone which create a flash light effect. For me, this design is for me to learn about color in space. I have tried this design in my model. I used different color filter (red, blue, yellow and green) try to create different feeling by that flash light effect mixed with color. They mostly makes the space look mystery. Blue and green are more cold color that make us feel kind of fear when we export the space. I have used this effect because I always afraid to wake up in late night when I can’t see anything. And as I have mention in the last project exercise, the place that I am living in Melbourne is hard to feel as a home for me. It is always a place I am not familiar with. Fear is always come up in my mind and making me restless.

     I like the effect coming out from this iPhone apps, but I think the problem of this video is the color is not changing smoothly. It is because I have to move the camera in one hand to create a exploring feeling in the video. And on the other hand, I have to change color and also make sure the iPhone standing at its right place. Due to this issue, I redo the video for a few times, I think the final result is the best one over all but I think it still have to improve.

2nd imaginary space

     For the 2nd idea, I have handcrafted a mixed color filter, and place it on the ceiling part of the model and try to put lighting on and also on the wall in front of my study desk. This is a more joyful feeling to the house area (image IV). A place I would like to stay in more even it is unfamiliar to me. I like playing and exploring color, light and shadow. It is just like a church space for me. These rainbow like space make me calm down and relax. I can also think more about my childhood home and my current Hong Kong home. I also like when the shadow come to an angle or a corner of the room, they change there shape because of the surface. It create interesting outcome. It also reminds me of the NGV great hall (image V). I love looking at the ceiling just to enjoy a few second of calmness in my mind.

     As for this idea I have just use photography to mock up the idea. I have then make a video of it to use for the further exercise.

 image IV

image V - from Internet

Sound Design

     For this exercise, we have to create a sound track for 1 of our lighting design in the last exercise. I have chosen the 2nd imaginary space to bring to this exercise. Because I am really interesting in those kind of lighting effect. And I have tried to do few different sound to match with the video. I used bottle tops, water waves and glass to create 3 different sound track. And I also record the natural surrounding environment sound as the 4th idea. For those 3 sound that I created, I also watch and creating at the same time, just want to make sure the sound matched with the video movement.


Water waves -
I want to use watch to create a natural and relax sound by moving the water with my hands.
Glass bottle -
I have used a hop stick to hit these bottles, to create sound with echo.
Bottle Tops - 

This is an old installation art which made my myself last year. It is lots of bottle tops join together with wire. I shake the whole chain in my hand to create sharp and clear sound.
Surrounding -

I have record the natural sound in my yard really last at night when there are no traffic outside. I wish I can have some natural wind sound in my recording.

     While I editing the sound into my video, I found that the bottle top and the glass bottle sound track is a bit similar. And the other two sound is not match as what I thought. The water is more like a storm than a natural comfortable sound. This is not what I want to create in my video. And the outside sound is not clear enough as a sound track. So I end up chosen the bottle top sound for this exercise.

     I like when the clear bottle top sound and the triangles of color light join together. They both have a sense of sharpness. But I think the video should be shorter as it will be a bit boring til the end. And I may use another light source to improve the quality for this video. As now I am using the desk light, and it is too heavy and big to move around the model smoothly.

This is the last 30s from the video.

 

Immersive environment

     In the beginning, I don't really know whats the meaning of 'IMMERSIVE' for a space. For my understanding, it means a space not real but happen in our mind, we are within it, but not actually inside it. I start research it online, and it come up with lots of complex art installation. After go thought those images, I come up with the word "Layering". When we immersed in a space, we are part of it, or we are one layer of it.

     I have used artificial night in my sound exercise, so I want to explore more about natural lighting in my home for this video. We can't control natural light, but they always very attractive and interesting working with their shadow.

     My home is a ground floor apartment, every sunny morning about 6-8am after the sun rise, natural light with shine into my room. And when car and tram drive pass, they will make reflect the sunlight and create color on my walls. The light will rotate around my room, when there are busy traffic outside, the light will constantly move and create different layer of reflection inside my room.

     I tried to record this effect happening in my room. After I watch it back, I think they are a bit flat even the lighting is attractive. Then I come up with an idea of me as a reflecting object as well. because I want to use human beings in the video to show people come and leave, there are lots of things happened in this space before. No one actually know all the history  behind this space, here is not anyone home, we all come, stay and leave.

Here is a 35s overview of the video.

     The sound track of this video is record by me playing on a piano. It is create by some simple rhythm and I just changing my speed of playing. I used piano sound because when I watch this video. I actually like it mute, give me more space to think. I don't want to lose those mystery of it, so I chose piano. It can create graceful sound and also contain sadness to match with the video.