Final Project Idea

xdd44, Sep. 26, 2024

During my undergrad I started an art project Unfamiliar Familiarity on my large amount of street photography works. It's about capturing unique rhythm underlying my practice of composition and post-processing with digital and algorithmic editing. I incorporated computer vision techniques to produce a series of visual products capturing light, color, and movement.

Motion image from Unfamiliar Familiarity

When developing this project, I had dreamed about bringing the visual experience out of screen to reality, so that I could share them with my friends and audience in a more tangible way. By making synthetic rendering, I expressed an ultimate goal of having audience on actual streets surrounded by my installation.

Synthetic render of my idea (model: my friend Larissa Wang)

I see the final project of this course a great opportunity to realize my dream. My plan is to design a projector-like machine so that I can display the images largely without buying expensive screens. Taking the requirements of final project into consideration, my rough direction is listed below:

Oct 15. Update

I had finally come up with a bit more detailed ideas. Since small screens may not have enough illuminance to be projected larger, the more proper way may be to design a custom film projector and use bulbs of any suitable kind to project the images. Of course, the films has to be positive, such as Kodak Ektachrome. I can either takes some new photos or somehow transfer existing photos to the films. For blurred and layered effect, I can stack the films and bringing their projection in focus or out of focus.

IMAX film of the movie Joker: Folie à Deux, the best film for projection

My preliminary design of the system

My preliminary design of the floating screens

Nov 6. Update

My week 9 project Auto Focus Film Projector was the first test of my idea, helped me understand some basics to achieve what's in my mind.

1) I used a 3W flashlight bulb as light source but that is far from enough brightness. It may be better for me to find a cheap used projecctor somewhere, disassemble it, and get its light (and potentially cooling system).

2) Even by stacking two to reduce it, glass lenses have too large focusing distance, especially at the film side.

3) The voltage is unstable because of the motor. When the motor moves, the light will dim. I may need help from additional parts like capacitors.

Auto Focus Film Projector

Nov 13. Update

I was pleased to meet a local camera expert, W. He pointed out more details I should take care. 1) Based on some calculation, we found a manual 24mm - 28mm camera lens may do a better job on scaling the whole system down a lot, since projection is just the reverse of shooting photo - film can be as close as Flange focal distance. 2) Casting bright light on films for long time may rise their temperature, especially at dark areas, and damage the film. So I may have to design something to cool the film.

Diagram showing Nikon 24mm manual lens he suggested, with focus control gear and film

Besides, I also made a list of other things I need to figure out:

1) Material of the floating screens? Currently I'm hoping for something semi-transparent, and I guess frosted acrylic sheet pieces can be a good choice, but need test.

2) How to hang the screens? I'm thinking about hanging them with fish wire on a metal frame

3) how to generate the positions of the screens? A design problem