HIRA

How does light effect our emotions?

For my Final major project I have been focusing on how light seems to have a huge impact on our lives without us even realizing.  During my research i have found out that many places in the world suffer from lack of light which puts them in to a state of depression. I find it fascinating how the weather puts me myself in to a certain mood. The brighter the day the happier I am whereas when the weather is gloomy i'm usually at my lowest mood. 

The subject i want to study next year is interior design therefor for my final piece I intend to create an installation of some sort that also has an effect on our moods, something which puts us in a state of mind whether it be cosy or uncomfortable. 

Here is my timetable for the upcoming weeks:-

I started off by looking at different types of lighting techniques and light shows such as places i have already visited; The Dubai fountains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE4-68XqMmo


The power of the light used for the fountains shows how strong and effective light can be and how it can entirely make something look more attractive.



I then started looking at reflective materials such as fluorescent lights. I then experimented with fluorescent paper and made something that potentially could have the same effect as fluorescent lighting

I made this prototype of something that uses natural light to work out of paper and card. I noticed it worked better with natural light than artificial light. From this point my focus went on to fluorescent lighting and reflective materials.

I began to look more in to reflective materials and came across one artist who's work really inspired me. Sean Avery is a young artist who makes sculptures out of shattered cd pieces.

'My sculpture work is all about repurposing the discarded to make something beautiful'

Although his work only consists of broken cds he works in such a way that it makes it seem as though there is very intricate detail on the sculptures. I love the way light is reflected of the cds to add colour and make it more eye catching then it already is.

I wanted to work alongside something similar to Sean Averys idea of using CDs as my main material. I found the reflective side of the CD relevant to what I had been previously looking at and thought i could work with it. 
I fist attempted to do something with shattered cd pieces but tbh it didn't turn out very well.. 

I then wanted to see the effect cd's had in a dark room with light reflected of them.. 

I wanted to try something completely different and tried manipulating the cds therefore I experimented with the cds in different ways such as bending them moulding them and heating them. I realised after melting them in the oven and moulding them in to a curved shape the light that is reflected off them is now distorted. I really liked the effect of the cd as it caused a Disillusion when a few of them were put together.

I proceeded to take on this idea for my final piece.

I made a prototype of what it could become and as i intended to do a installation of some sort that had an effect I remained focused on this and thought about doing a tranquil yet wave like sculpture. 

I experimented with card and nails on how it could possibly look.. 

The Final STAGE - The making process

I started by collecting as many Cds as I could possibly get hold off. I then had to scrape the stickers off each of them by soaking them in hot soapy water. 

The next step was to drill 4 holes in half of them and 2 holes in the other half as some would be convex and the others would be concave. Joining them together this way would make the wave like effect... 

After hours of drilling holes in the Cd's it came down to the melting process. I baked them in the oven each for about a minute but realized the ones on the bottom rack kept disintegrating therefore melting them took twice as long as I expected it to.

The Oven

The Mould
I then molded them in to shape by using this steel pipe and taking them straight out of the oven and placing them on the mould to cool and take its shape.

CD's that melted too much  

The next step was to connect them all together with nuts and bolts, i chose the 3mm ones as they weren't too big nor too small. 

I made each row out off 8 Cd's each

I then put them all in a line to see how they'd look:- 

I decided that for it to have a full impact I was to drill it on to an 8ft by 4ft wall and paint it black with two sides and make a soffet so that I can install a light so it can reflect of the Cds. I went out to buy the light but made sure it had adjustable lights on it so i could direct them all in different ways.

The final steps were to install the light and screw the rows of Cd's in to the middle board. 

I used a drill machine to make holes in the board & then screwed each row one by one on top of each other, I then hand screwed it to make sure it was tight and secure. 

The Outcome 

Close up of Cd's - I love how up close the cd's are like an optical illusion & plays with your eyes, this adds an extra bit of emphasis to my work

Light installment 

Conclusion - 

Overall i think my installment turned out to be a success as i really like how it looks & how it pretty much turned out how I expected it to. Also I have had a lot of positive comments and feedback of people that came round to look at my work. If i was to change it somehow I'd probably add fluorescent sheets behind the Cd's just to see how it would look with a extra bit of colour.