Dance with Light

Explanation

My concept named Dance with Light.

This installation is consists of three parts. A huge screen, some blocks of different shapes, and the movable light.

People freely assemble blocks together and adjust the light source. By irradiation, a shadow will be formed on the screen. When the shadow's outline match some certain patterns, the system will be triggered and the black shadow will change to the colorful animation to inform the players that they have succeeded. For example, two blocks that look completely unrelated to each other, through constantly rotating and trying at multiple angles, end up with the silhouette of a fish. Then the system is triggered, the fish swells its tail and the screen becomes the ocean.

This installation can be played by multiple players at the same time and also has a competitive mode to make it more interesting. This game needs the player's imagination and creativity, promotes the coordination of hands and brains, and improves the ability to control spatial and planar graphics.

And here is my A3 concept sketch

Inspiration

This installation was inspired by a game I used to play as a child: step on the shadow. We chased each other in order to step on each other's shadow. And hand shadow: use our hands in different gestures to get many different shadows, usually of animals such as butterflies, spiders and wolves.

Progress

Therefore I set out to design my concept. At first, I just thought of a table with blocks on it and a light source suspended in the center above the table (figure 1). Then I thought, why not hang up all the building blocks as well (figure 2), however, another problem arose. What if the light source could not be distinguished? If the light source is fixed in one place, the user will be very inconvenient. So I designed multiple light sources and made them mobile through the track(figure 3). Finally, it occurred to me that the rectangular table was not convenient for the user to put the two blocks together. If the table/screen is designed to circle shape, it will be more reasonable, and also more convenient when the player is in competitive mode(figure 4).

Other resource for the future work

After completing my concept I have done some research and found that one game that really coincides with my idea, called ‘shadowmatic’. Here are some screenshots of the game.

This game is very simple and delicate, I believe it will provide some help to my future work(eg. in the design of scenes and objects).