Prototyping is paramount

(Written July 9, 2017)

A little over a week ago, I decided that the unifying theme of my thesis project was going to be the five elements (earth, air, fire, water, spirit), but that is not what this post is about; discussing the elements will come soon enough. Anyway, because I have chosen this theme I need to do some modifications to The Station. As it is right now, I currently have three small sound booths (remember my space used to be an old radio station - see blog titled "What's with The Station" for more info about the space) and one large sound studio where I am going to be building my installations. As a result, the big studio needs to be turned into two separate spaces. This would then give me a total of 5 different spaces to work with.

The problem is that I cannot choose the layout of these spaces until I have fully developed my idea for the Spirit space. At this point I am hoping to put a 3D hologram or a Pepper's Ghost in that space.

3D Hologram Pyramid

https://youtu.be/SKIdY-cOAz0

Old School Peppers Ghost

Updated Peppers Ghost

https://youtu.be/JqPIoG5m0B4

This is where the prototyping comes in to play. My father and I spent the better part of yesterday and today working on some different prototypes for how this illusion will work. Seriously we tried so many different things. We purchased some Lexan material, measured and cut it, only to find out that not only were our measurements wrong but the material was opaque. Lol, none of us bothered to pull back the protective wrap to verify that it was not actually clear...oops!. [Shout out to mom for your help, too bad we were giving you bad information.] Then we got some plexiglass, and after a bit of trial and error built a 3D hologram pyramid, but just like Goldie Lox it still wasn't quite right. We even tried to design our own shape, by hanging string from the ceiling to see if our design would work, it didn't. And the the testing just kept going.

I would love to tell you that we found a solution, but we didn't. I know we will eventually figure out the right technique and I am super grateful for all of our experimentation. In my thesis proposal I wrote a great deal about taking the space into consideration during the iteration process and if nothing else comes from today, at least I can confidently say that I am most certainly considering the space in my design. My apologies for the poorly written blog, I am very tired after todays experiments and I am just moments from slipping away into sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will yield some more definitive results.