D-Light

Consciousness of light as an instrument has brought to us the sense of a world that never sleeps. An instrument that we can use in so many ways to help ourselves during the night and even during the day when sun itself is giving us it's light we need.

We have put ourselves in boxes inside boxes to work, eat, sleep and have fun; opaque boxes with suns that vary in shape, color, intensity. But, do you feel light? Or can you only see it.


Interaction may lead us to control a world of sensations and our own perception.
d-Light was inspired in experimental comprehension of light's phenomena and the stimuli it produces to the different senses.


A pair of luminaries in which light is used to evidence the characteristics of fluency, temperature, sound and movement resulting of the transformation of electricity into light. This luminaries It would be turned on or off responding to stimuli generated by the perceiver and the context around the object.

This light source makes evident some characteristics of the process in which electricity is transformed into light; some characteristics we usually do not consider:
*The heat produced by both natural and artificial light.
*Sound produced by electricity been transformed into light.
*The flow of light protruded by a lamp.

Materials:
-A small hairdryer for a flow of hot air and sound.
-A small candle like red bulb, to increase the sensation of temperature inside the body of the lamp.
-A dimmer switch connected to a touch pad.
-Aluminum plate, as the touch on the lamp shade connected to the dimmer input.

-An opaque but translucent material that allows the light to be seen through the body of the lamp.
-Isolate and monitor the temperature generated by the hairdryer inside of lamp's structure.
-Ventilation openings put in the lamp shade to allow the flow of hot air go out.

Procerure:

-For both the body of the lamp, as well as the shade I used porcelanicrom (cold porcelain): A clay-like mixture of corn flour and glue that can be worked with the hands; when it dries it's hard and looks white but also translucent.

-To make the body in porcelanicrom, I used LD stiropor spheres with a shape similar to the final one. After that I covered them with porcelanicrom, making sure that this will have the final shape. When it dries, the body of the lamp would be removed from the stiropor.

- To close the base of the lamp I used LD polystyrene lid to the internal elements, with the shape of the base of the lamp and a hole inside, so the back of the hairdryer could be out the body of the lamp to get air from outside. The dimmer and the bulb where also glued on the LD PS.

-The dimmer, the bulb and hairdryer where connected, and the connections isolated by securing them with liquid silicon to the PS.

-For the lamp shade, I filled a cup with porcelanicrom until it was dry enough to be removed; then I drilled a hole in the middle to make an exit for air flow.

In a rectangle of aluminum plate I covered the lampshade making a surface to control lamps on mode. The plate was held by two screws to which 2 wires were connected to make contact with the touch pad of the touch dimmer.
The dimmer was also connected to the hairdryer, the bulb and to the AC.

Then the body of the lamp with the internal components was sealed and the lamp shade pasted to the body.

Conclusions:

At first I thought that because the dimmer has 3 levels of intensity, people would tend to be cautious or somewhat scared when it reached the higher levels; but actually this was the opposite. People would
interact with it by turning it on to its higher level and then turn it off for so short that the dimmers effect would not last for long. I assume this occurred because of the hairdryer's high consumption of electrical energy. It consumes much more than the dimmer can handle.
On the other hand, the bulb behaved well and even the dimmer had to be replaced 3 times in only 6 hours, the hairdryer and the bulb remained intact.

Incorporating a dimmer to a hairdryer has to be done carefully, because of the ware and tear that can occur. Without proper maintenance, when the dimmer stops working so will the lamp. The dimmer has to be replaced often, but I'm taking a quick guess that this could be solved in two ways:
1- Changing the hairdryer for something else that has a lower consumption of electrical energy but still produces sound as well as a flow of hot air.
2- Get a dimmer that can handle as much voltage as is required.

This lamp shows the need of feedback, the light is affected if we do not interact with it somehow; so we will have to physically interact with touching the fibers, if we want the light source to work.

The light coming from a spotlight may be seen as a physical field, with which you may interact. The optic fibers in this lamp gives us the idea, that an area lighting conditions can only be affected if we turn on the light and the experience the controlling the illuminated area.
- Intensifying the light by reducing the area illuminated: by jointing them with our hands making the fibers be closer one to other.
- Light diffusion happens, when we let fibers fall so they are separated.

Optic fiber lamp
Wire
Lamp
Wiring board
Bakelite
6 L.E.D lights (2 yellow,2 red, 2 blue)
6 330 R
1 10nF
1 X7R

Metallic wires or fibers on the area of interaction that will conduct electricity to a touch sensor. When activated it will turn the light on.

Procedure:

I took optic fibers from an optic fiber lamp. The fibers will help generate the impression of an area for interaction and will also transmit the light from the inside of the lamp to the outside, helping to determine the area of interaction and when the lamp is on.


-I took the optic fibers and separate them.
-Carefully remove the PVC covering the wires.
-I Cut enough wires to mix with the fibers, the same longitude as the optic fibers + .5cm
-Group both the optic fibers and the wires and glue them together.

-For the body of the lamp, an old Coleman camping lamp was used.
Parts from it where removed and others modified leaving only the husk so lights and boards could fit in and then the lamp closed.

-For the L.E.D circuit bakelite with the touch sensor this graphic was used and programing for Wiring 0007: (Programing can also be find at: http://atari.uniandes.edu.co/medios/cursos/dise-3117-061/detalle.php?p_id=401&e_id=203)

//codico 1 led prendido siempre, los otros se acrivan con el
//switch

int switchPin = 1; // digital pin to attach the switch
int ledPin1 = 9; // digital pin to attach the light
int ledPin2 = 8; // digital pin to attach the light
int ledPin3 = 10; // digital pin to attach the light
int ledPin4 = 11; // digital pin to attach the light
int ledPin5 = 13; // digital pin to attach the light

void setup()
{
pinMode(switchPin, INPUT); // sets digital pin 7 as input
pinMode(ledPin1, OUTPUT); // sets digital pin 0 as output
pinMode(ledPin2, OUTPUT); // sets digital pin 1 as output
pinMode(ledPin3, OUTPUT); // sets digital pin 2 as output
pinMode(ledPin4, OUTPUT); // sets digital pin 3 as output
pinMode(ledPin5, OUTPUT); // sets digital pin 5 as output
pinMode(ledPin6, OUTPUT); // sets digital pin 6 as output

}

void loop()
{
if(digitalRead(switchPin) == HIGH)
{
digitalWrite(ledPin2, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin4, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin5, LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, LOW);

}
else
{

digitalWrite(ledPin2, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin6, HIGH);
delay(10000);
}

digitalWrite(ledPin1, HIGH);
}

-When the board and the bakelite are ready and assembled, they are pasted inside the lamps body in a secure way where they do not move so the lamp can be transported.

-The wires from the group of optic fibers are soldered to a wire that will connect them to the touch sensor to work as the touch pad the sensor needs in order to make the lamp work

-The optic fibers grouped with the wires are placed on top of the lamp so when the light comes out from inside it would be seen through the fibers.

Conclusions:

When the optic fibers are separated at first to group them with the wires, the light diffusion through them is significantly reduced, so the effect is almost imperceptible.

I think the solution to this problem is to use more optic fiber lamps and do not separate them at first, try to put the wires in a way in which you would not require to break apart the fibers.

The lamp has an aggressive look because of the wires; you could replace the wire with thinner metallic elements that will give a more soft touch to the lamp.

You could use bulbs instead of L.E.Ds but you will need an optoacoplador for Voltage conversion, and there for the wiring program would be different than this one that is for a switch (high/low mode).