GLOWMATTER

Graduate - Elective

Winter 2014

Collaborators:
Mauricio Cornejo
Joseph Donelko
Alina Granville
Andres Marin
Sean Mengyue Niu

Instructor:
Catie Newell

The scope of the Glowmatter class called students to start to look at lighting in a special way and acknowledge how lighting can start to shape, create or even fake a space. By studying the way lighting can effect a space one can start to design parts of spaces with something so simple as lighting which compared to other building methods can be relatively cheap. Paying attention to lighting can make a space more spatially interesting or it can go the other way as to make a space be dull and boring. 

The RadiateBlue installation sought to create lighting along the Detroit River where a river walk has just been implemented. Although the river walk is relatively new lighting there is still an issue, along with many other places in Detroit, and many people walk/jog along the water encountering places that are still, at many times, still dark. The design idea behind RadiateBlue was to have lighting that goes beyond what a lamp can do. The lighting gets transformed into objects that populate the river walk and interact with people as they walk along the area or stop to rest or take in the view. The lighting is now seen an a companion that is made to make you feel more at ease in less lit places in Detroit. The lights can also be a way to signal if there are other people walking by in the darkness, almost as if to warn you of the presence of others around.

RadiateBlue Installation Pictures

Process of Making the Orbs

Lighting Process - Arduino 

RadiateBlue Time Lapse and Installation Video