Rhythm of Shadow

The strength of the proposal is in its simplicity. You’ve thought about a great way to use the material and to animate it in a simple and effective way. The notion of paper and wind working together (almost a clothes line effect) has a lot of potential and can create beautiful, and expressive interactions with the material.

That said, I’d like you to push further on the media components of this. There’s more opportunity than just casting a shadow and I think using projection will take this further. Look at Eddy’s examples from Tuesday for the kinds of possibilities for media and material to interact. Really push into this territory and explore how a piece of looping projection can become much more dynamic when placed on a movable material.

Add sound into the mix: to create an immersive space you’ll also need to introduce sound. Combine the visual with looping audio that evokes and abstracts the movement, the ruffling of paper, and the wind. This will add depth to the hybrid liminal space you create and make it much more affective.

For a project about space, you’ve overlooked the importance of site and where this is located. This is perhaps the most important element of success and I’d encourage you to think carefully about it and define it as soon as possible. Don’t be agnostic to space. Site matters and it defines almost all aspects of your installations success.

You really need to define it as soon as possible. Make sure you know how and where you’re going to place and arrange the paper strips in space. Consider how it will be mounted and where the fan will be placed to give optimal movement. Decide if you want people to move through or past the paper. etc.

The sooner you identify the location the sooner you can lock down these kinds of important mechanics for deployment.

Finally in terms of documentation:
- Consider your precedents. Do some research there are many examples you can draw inspiration from. What are your points of reference for the space you want to construct. Talk about them.
- Illustrate your idea: A diagram, or sketch would go a long way to communicating how you envision the liminal space being created
- Media is almost entirely overlooked, but its a key part of the assignment. Define how is media integrated.

While I really like the idea that you're proposing, I don't think you've included a media component. You mentioned you'd be using lights so maybe you could replace the lights with an image projection to make shadows instead. My group and I also planned on using a place in the stairwell so maybe we could coordinate to make sure we choose different areas. Our installation includes an audio effect since the stairwell echoes a lot. Maybe you could take advantage of the stairwell's acoustics as well and include an audio aspect. Although, I'm not sure if two different sound installations would clash.

This idea of interaction between light, wind and hanging paper strips is simple (the good meaning) but also aesthetically appealing if, as you mentioned, the light source and fan are set up in appropriate places. I guess you might need pins or scotch tape in order to suspend the stripes from the ceiling.
Since you are going to position a fan and light source on the ceiling, I assume that the shadow will be projected on the ground. But, the relatively reflective floors of both the 2nd and 4th floor might be hard for the shadow to be easily recognized.
What occurred to me when thinking about your proposal is, perhaps hanging white paper strips on the ceiling and shine colorful light (from the ground) onto the paper to create some “rainbow” effect (also with a fan blowing wind from below to create the wave movement).
Overall, nice ideas and I’m looking forward to your mockup!

This sounds like a good start because the stairway could be really cool for hanging paper. However, the proposal could be a bit more detailed. For example, what kind of paper do you intend to use? And will the light just be a solid source or will it change colors or patterns or direction? I feel like this project is very easily adaptable and you can make it more complex and have even more features which would result in a better experience for the audience (if you so choose). Although my group does not intend on using the staircase, I hope we get to visit each other's final products!

This project proposal really creates a clear image of how the project will look, and would definitely be a good addition to enhance a stairwell, but a few aspects of it might need more detail. First off, with the paper itself, in the proposal it says that it will be placed in a way such that it would not interfere with people walking, yet it will also be affected by fans, which makes me curious as to how the paper will be anchored or placed to move yet not enter the stairs. The second thing is that it sounds like the paper will be completely opaque, and it may be an idea to experiment with clear plastics or thinner paper to change shadow to colored lights, which although may add another layer of complexity, it may provide a better experience for those on the stairwell and create an effect which would have less potential to be too big of a contrast to the lighting of the stairwell.

I was most impressed by the complexity of your installation - it seemed you replaced a tile in the ceiling with one you specifically made to hold the papers in place. You accomplished this with the added difficulty of constructing top down, so that everything has the tendency to fall. The projections felt a bit disconnected from the surfaces of the paper, maybe because the vent wasn't blowing air and the projection was not centered exactly. Overall, I liked the project and how it presented small patches of "jungle" in the library.