Light It Up

The final trial of the lighting was done on the 26th June, using the blue LED string lights going up the back, the EL wire threaded through the milk bottles, and then a large camping light placed on the inside of the wave protected inside a plastic blue container, which also casts a nice hue and gives a glow from the inside so the whole wave is illuminated. We also have a smaller light (but is still very powerful) that we may add inside, but this decision will be made when in situ and depending on how dark the car park is.

IMG_8343

The wave in itself is completed, however, we have left a gap in the large sheets of plastic that are sewn onto the sides so we can change the batteries that we will cable tie each time, the pallets we are attaching the wave onto need the top coat of black paint (this will conceal them), nail the frame at the base to the pallets using industrial staples, and also attach the trailing plastic to the pallets. This all has to be done when setting up, on location, so we will have to allow time to make these final adjustments.

Images are our own.

Experimentation with Armatures

We decided that it would be a good idea to start experimenting with the form of the wave and the underlying structure. Below are the examples of some maquettes using thin rods. Our first attempt we used a hot glue gun to bind each individual piece, while it held loosely together, it was not ideal and would not be a strong structure that we could work with.

IMG_20160516_135017

(Image 2) After testing the hot glue gun and it not being satisfactory, we decided to try spot welding points of the structure together. We found this to be a lot firmer, and created a very strong armature.

IMG_20160516_134959

 

A close up of the results of the two different temperature settings on the spot welder.

IMG_20160516_135147

(Image 3 and 4) The two settings tested on the joined piece above. Because of how they were held with being spot welded setting the heat to 1 and 5 worked best, whereas 1 and 6 nearly burnt through the metal. However when welding the corners of the wave structure we had the spot welder set to 1 and 6, as 1 and 5 wasn’t hot enough to go through and join the two pieces of rod at an angle.

IMG_20160516_134928IMG_20160516_134937

Images are our own.