The First Instrument

My first light painting instrument was anything but polished. At the time, I was eager to create and see if I could make my idea of a light painting instrument work.

Assembly

I found some unused disks, cut them up, and attached the pieces to a plastic tray with hot glue. I grabbed a couple of servo motors and quickly programmed them with Arduino. After attaching more disk pieces to the motors, I lined a glass sheet with dichroic film. At this point, the first instrument was complete.

Painting

I grabbed a flashlight, sat on the floor of a dark room, turned on the instrument, and began reflecting light off of the spinning disks. The room was filled with colorful light, and I further experimented with color by filtering the reflected light through the dichroic sheet to see the impact it would have on the light painting. I quickly became mesmerized by the ever-changing shapes and colors achieved by swirling the flashlight above the instrument.

An Instrument

Over the course of one night, I scrappily crafted the beginnings of this project. My positive experiences in creating this first instrument ultimately led to the creation of a second version: light painting ii.

the first instrument was taken apart to repurpose its components for the second instrument.