*Lumens* Opens
Last night was the opening for Lumens. Everything went amazingly! Both spaces looked beautiful and the internet site (http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/newadams/lumens/) launched successfully. Lots of people came out in support – my family even made out here. As the sun went down the lamps really looked spectacular. The show will running through October 31st.
A crowd favorite was the creepy baby doll lamp.
Marianne showing the Lumens website to the owner of T&A Tools located right down the street from Greylock Arts in Adams. He donated one of his handmade lamps made from race car tires.
Matthew talking to Marianne, another Adams resident who also donated a lamp to us.
All of my fellow B-HIP interns showed up to support the show and to listen to Marianne and Matthew talk a little bit about what goes into developing and creating a project of this scale.
Erin and I posing for pictures in front of all the lamps. It was really gratifying to see this exhibition have a successful and beautiful opening. Kudos to all the artists involved (Mathew Belanger, Sean Riley, and Ven Voisey) and thanks to all who donated their time and lamps!
Preparing for the Opening
The past week(s) leading up to the opening have been pretty intense. Everyone has been putting in lots of time to get the Greylock Arts space, the North Adams space and the internet space ready for the opening.
This is a great example of what it is like trying to prep all the lamps to light up and work together. Can you spot Matthew?
Once again, here is Larry Alice helping Matthew with the programming (which can be a tedious process in tight spaces) of all the boxes. Here he is in one of the front windows of Greylock Arts.
A couple of my favorite lamps at Greylock Arts. This project may turn me into a ‘crazy lamp’ collecting lady.
*Lumens* Update
Everyone has been working extremely hard the past few weeks to get this intense show together. I never thought my life would be consumed by lamps. The opening is happening this Thursday July 10th, in three locations:
Greylock Arts, 93 Summer Street, Adams MAMCLA Gallery 51 Annex, 65 Main Street, North Adams and on the web at: MAturbulence.org/networkedrealities
A lot of work has been put into the Lumens space that is located at 65 Main Street in North Adams. It was at one point an old sports store and new walls and floors had to built in order to accommodate the show. At the moment we are really close to our goal of having 180 lamps in the exhibition – and to getting them to all respond to people as they walk by! The gray box in the picture holds a microcontroller (that were all hand built), a fan, and a power source for a cluster of six lamps that are plugged into the bottom. There will then be a motion sensor placed on the lamps to respond to people as they move through the space. In addition, there is a web component that allows people to also turn the lamps on as they interact witht the web page.
Here is a closer look at all the boxes that were built to accommodate a power source, a fan and microcontroller.
Most of these were hand wired by Marianne!
Here is a picture of the fans and the general craziness that has been happening in the space.
Our friend Larry Alice, who is also an electrical engineer, has been an incredible help on this project. He has been in several days helping Matthew trouble shoot all the technical issues and has even helped with the tedious task of stripping wires. I believe that here he is soddering a breadboard. Thanks Larry!
Another time consuming part of this project has been photographing all the lamps that are then photoshoped and uploaded to the website. Sean Riley, one of the Lumens artists photographed most of the crazy lamps that we have received.
Summer Street Fair
Saturday night The Summer Street Association of Merchants held Adams’s first street fair of the season. There was everything from fried dough (which everyone ate), to a band, a Velcro wall, raffles and and a bungee run.
Greylock Arts set up a table to demonstrate the upcoming exhibit ‘Lumens’. We got lots of people in the gallery and had fun explaining the technology and ideas behind the project for all the crazy lamps that we have been collecting.
Here Ven Voisey, one of the artists working on “Lumens’, is explaining the upcoming exhibit to a couple of Adams residents.
And here I am demoing how the lamps work to the nuns of Saint Stanislaus Church.
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One of the best moments of the fair was when Hallie and Ven did the ‘Bungee Run’.
Matt Belanger, co-director of Greylock Arts and Dan Rose, an artist currently showing at Greylock Arts got into the fun with a couple of LED headbands.
Greylock Arts holds an Arduino Workshop
This past Saturday Greylock Arts turned it’s gallery space into a classroom and had Tom Igoe (ITP Professor, author of Making Things Talk, and member of the Arduino Development Team), run an Arduino workshop. This is the technology that will be allowing all the lamps for the upcoming Lumens exhibit to respond to a person’s presence across towns and the internet.
Basically I built a microcontroller (with the Arduino kit) and did some basic processing that allowed it to talk and interact with my computer.
Tom was pretty great at explaining everything from basic electronics to programming code. I was way out of my comfort zone with writing code but it was very interesting and cool. Tom was, in a sense, condensing a graduate course that he teaches into a four hour workshop. To be honest, some of the information discussed went way over my head (okay, most of it went way over my head). But I was pretty excited when I was able to make my LED light blink on and off!
Marianne (co-director of Greylock Arts) paying attention and getting ready to do some wiring.
Lamp Update
Currently there are about 70-80 lamps that have been donated for the Lumens exhibit. Ideally, we would like to have 180 lamps. People have been great about donating their lamps (which they will get back unharmed in October).
Here are some of the lamps hooked up to a proximity sensor prototype that Matthew has been working very hard on. At the moment people can make the lamps turn on and off via the internet or from waving their hand near the crazy looking breadboard with all the wires.
Here is a closer look at all the craziness that is going on. I believe that about 35 of these will be built to control all the lamps.
