ONGLOWING - AN INTERACTIVE LIGHT SCULPTURE

MFA Project

WHAT IS ONGLOWING?

For my final project in the MFA in Graphic Design program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, I wanted to capture the program's unique approach to communication and its independent structure through an interactive light installation. Given that VCFA students and faculty are spread across the globe, there’s a constant likelihood that at any given moment, someone is working on their project.

I designed a light sculpture that used IFTTT and WeMo to remotely activate as VCFA students and faculty communicated, creating a visual representation of the continuous relay of talented designers collaborating and producing one-of-a-kind work.

HOW ONGLOWING WORKS

IFTTT is a service that allowed me to create "recipes" based on a simple structure: if this, then that. The "this" part of a recipe is the trigger. For my project, the main trigger was "If I receive an email with VCFA in the subject line." The "that" part is the action—in this case, "turn the WeMo switch on, then off." A WeMo switch is a Belkin device that can be controlled remotely via the internet from anywhere in the world.

As students and faculty from both the Graphic Design program and other VCFA programs around the globe communicated through specific social media channels, they could trigger the light sculpture. Once the signal was sent to activate the device, it passed through a 4-channel chaser controller that animated the lights on the suspended display.

The light sculpture was installed on VCFA's campus during the Graphic Design residency in October 2013, allowing students and faculty to observe and interact with it. Those not on campus could still view and engage with the sculpture via a live camera feed, enabling a student from another VCFA program to see the lights illuminate in response to their social media participation, all while working from their laptop at home.