Just submitted a proposal for the Nuit Blanche 2012 Bring to Light Festival along the Brooklyn Waterfront with Artist/Architect Raylene Gorum and Lighting Designer Paul Hudson. The above images are some of the items from the submission as well as partial full scale mock up with colored to study the light and reflective qualities of each deconstructed "crane" on itself and architectural space. The site we chose was an old rope factory in Greenpoint Brooklyn. Wish us luck in winning a final spot in the Festival! Here is a description of our installation:
"1000+ Cranes of Light"
Proposal for Nuit Blanche 2012
Bring to Light festival of illuminated installations on the Brooklyn waterfront
by Raylene Gorum, Vivien Chin + Paul Hudson
We are proposing an installation for the breezeway at 67 West Street that uses physical materials and form to articulate the light and highlight the unique architectural properties of this specific site. This installation will take the general form of a flock of shiny origami cranes suspended on fishing wire rising up from the ground floor of the alleyway through the 4 story balconies above. They will be made out of highly reflective mylar which will be bathed in colored light and animate the alley in shimmering watery reflections. The effect will be that of a wall of light shattered into dynamic prisms. The details will reveal what those in theatrical lighting refer to as a "revelation of form".
The "flock" starts at the ground level with the first steps of the origami fold. The pieces/birds increase in complexity as the flock rises through the four balconies above until it finally takes its finished bird form. The resulting three-dimensional "fabric" is composed of permuations of this modular bird base and weaves through the balcony side of the breezeway. It's an homage to both the poetry of flight and the process of construction/deconstuction.
Contrast is key here - these cranes will act as beacons of colorful flittering light in an otherwise compressed and low-lit space. The piece itself is at once massive (22' wide and over 60' high) and massless (being made of feather weight materials and defying gravity). We also understand that many of the other installations will be large streetside projections and offer this as a delicately constructed analog counterpoint to be discovered in the intimate setting of this unique industrial breezeway.
(images by vivien chin, raylene gorum, & paul hudson)