Technical Methods, Workshop Practice and Learning
Shadows, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer gave a clear concept of shading that all shadows are the product of a distortion that follows the laws of perspective, and different light cast different shadows. Stoichita,V. (1997) A Short History of the Shadow. London: Reakktion Book Ltd
Researching
Researching an additional attendance workshop, library and internet.
The search for this subject topic began with the idea of working as a project manager on museum management and exhibitions.
In this research, it is expected to gain more knowledge about lighting and shadow management in exhibitions, understand the function of light, understand the workings of shadows and can be used for exhibitions in the future to create an environment with shadows and make a feeling within the exhibition area.
The first method began with the question of
how can we control the light that passes through the space between objects?
Planning
Exploring
Olafur Eliasson In Real Life exhibition which held from 11 July 2019 - 5 January 2020.
Olafur Eliasson is a famous artist which I knew about him not so long.
Five months ago, I had a chance to travel to London, and someone recommended me to see the Olafur Eliasson In Real Life exhibition which held from 11 July 2019 - 5 January 2020.
I visited the exhibition without knowing history or information about him at all. However, as I finished watching, many questions arose in my head.
Who is he?
What is the concept of this exhibition?
How are the various techniques used on display?
And what does this exhibition telling?
Every question arises from the interest of the exhibition throughout the walk.
I found that he was the one who showed the art that brought the principles of nature and science to communicate emotionally through space.
His work also has profoundness, which hides the meaning of every aspect of the exhibition.
It also uses the techniques of exotic exhibits with the art perfectly and reaches the emotions of the audience.
Testing
The testing was divided into 2 parts. The first part is how to find answers about the shadow occur. The second part is the work of mirror and lens that can change the image size.
PART1
The first test: Learning about the positioning of lighting and objects. The result shows that the size of the shadow that occurs depends on the main factors is the distance between the light source and the object.
PART2
The second test: Learning about using a mirror to controlling the image direction. The result shows that a mirror can help to control the direction of light which shines into the object according to the position of the mirror.
The third test: Learning about using the convex lens to enlarge the image by using an image from a mobile phone instead of projectors. The result shows that the image was more extensive than not using magnifying lenses, but the image was not very clear.
The fourth test: Learn how to use a convex lens to enlarge shadows by using a shadow from flashlight to illuminate objects. The results showed that the shadows could zoom in and out according to the location of the convex lens.
From the experiment 1 - 4 can be seen that
THE MIRROR CAN CONTROL THE DIRECTION OF LIGHT
LANS CAN CONTROL THE SIZE OF SHADOWS.
Creating
Creating of a small studio that tells the memories of the New Year's event in London through light and shadow.
PART3
Finally, from researching and conducting that initial experiment, the final episode brings all the knowledge into a small studio that shows the ideas of the memories of the New Year in London. Started by finding equipment including flashlights, colourful lights, colourful glass, mirrors, lenses, objects (prominent architectural models in London), paper boxes and stencil paper. The light used was not only daylight but also a spectrum light to increase the dimension of shape.
There are many things that not base on the study data due to the additional context. Here are the steps for creating a small simulation studio.
• Arrange the elements from the light projections to create shadows on the screen.
• Take notes and measure the size of the distance of the object, light and screen to create a box.
• Mount the building model onto the boxes.
• Shifting the lights to get the desired image.
• Bring a mirror to help control the direction of light.
• Use a convex lens to zoom in and out to make the image clearer. However, the result cannot be desired because the clear image must be five times the distance from the screen.
• Install all equipment, including mirror and light source.
• Using a small projector instead of a mobile experiment that failed in the previous experiment. But at this time, it was successful because the projector lens system was of better quality than the lens used in the first experiment.
However, there was another problem, even if the projector helps to manage the desired image clarity. The sharpness that the projector can show have to step back in one step further. Therefore there were two ways to handle this.
1 Place the mirror to reduce the projection distance. In this way, moving the projector to the front and placing the mirror will create the shadows that overlap with the shadows from the placed objects.
2 Retreating the projector distance as needed by one more time, but this method will not be following the control area, which already set up from the start.
Moreover, in the experiment, there was an unexpected factor which is the light of the flashlight was unequal because of the battery and it made a difficult to control the light.
This experiment is only the beginning. Many limitations are not mentioned in this article. It found that the most important factor apart from a distance between the object and the light source is the luminous power which have a significant impact on the shadows.
In the overall, it can be concluded that there are 6 critical factors to controlling shadow formation including
1. Lighting power / luminous power
2. The distance of an objects
3. Light position
4. Object position
5. The angle in which the light falls
6. The angle used to see the shadow
The result
Learning this time is the beginning of bringing science about light and shadow to create the artwork. In this evaluation of learning about light and shadow, it was clear that everything is a primary subject that science has already taught.
However, by using the role of creating works of art, including creating emotions from the use of light and shadow, many factors need to be a concern for helping to complete the work.