Science of Twilight
Building The Twilight Installation
My why:
Education is very important to me, and science shows that students learn better combining two modes of learning. Having both something hands-on that students can touch, and combining it with visual or auditorial is the best way to retain information.
I also value beauty a lot, and I think learning the science of the natural world makes it even more beautiful. If I could teach people why the sky changes colors, they would appreciate the sunrise much more.
My story:
I set out to create a museum-style installation that teaches the physics of light behind why the sky is blue, and why it changes colors.
My initial design was very focused on projection mapping, using a physical mount on the wall with the graphics projected on top.
I ended up moving towards a design that could be much more flexible for different installation sites, with a physical dial that is seperate from the visuals.
The first step was figuring out how to create the visuals. My best option was to learn Processing, which is a coding language that can take input from something like arduino to create visuals on a screen.
Next step was to develop the mechanical parts, where I spent lots of time researching and iterating on the parts I needed, and the Arduino IDE code to make it work. I started with an incremental rotary encoder, and then settled on an absolute rotary encoder that could read the angle with significantly less error.
Throughout the process, I met with different experts and teachers to revise my design to meet my goals. I came up with mock-up visuals to make sure people could understand the way I was teaching the content.
Over the course of 10 weeks, I slowly chipped away at the code, adding more details and troubleshooting to make it look exactly like my vision. I developed my own illustrations for most of the elements, and perfected the parts that were hard-coded.
I built and soldered the rotary encoder circuit and started 3D modeling the physical components. I decided I wanted the dial to be similar a clock, to connect the idea of time to the animation. I painted over a clock, reinforcing the colors. I 3D printed a clock hand and an enclosure for the wiring.
After adding the final touches and details to the code, the project was complete. I think there is always room for improvement, so I definitely could iterate even further, but for now, I am happy with the outcome.
