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week 0 - principles and practices

assignment:
- plan and sketch a potential final project

In my free time, I like thinking of art installations for light festivals. Light is a fascinating material that attracks us in a mystical and instinctive way. But there is another natural fact that I think really intrigues us as much as light does: movement. Especially the movement of natural phenomena, such as burning fire, streaming water or running clouds, can also hypnotize us and have us inexplicably staring at them for a long time. Thinking how far we can control the movement of natural happenings is something that is lately obsessing me.

Smoke flowing is another captivating event and its always changing form is not easy to capture. However, thinking this way I remembered how Native American Indians somehow 'shaped' the smoke in order to make smoke signals as a relatively long-distant communication system.

Chinese (8c. BC)also used smoke signals

And also the Greeks (150 BC) used smoke signals. They used the Polybius square

Nowadays smoke signals are not used anymore, except for symbolic acts like the choosing of a new Pope

I want to build a machine that can transform nowadays communication systems into smoke signals, mixing the oldest long-distant communication system with contemporary technology.

The signal

Since smoke form is hard to control, shaping it will be better for understanding the message. Smoke vortex rings can be helpful for that.

The language

In a morse language way (or on its own invented code), the smoke signal machine can shoot rings into the sky in order the be seen and read by people.

The machine



Similar things



for those who see from Daniel Schulze / bitsbeauty on Vimeo.



BIG Smoke Ring from Cliff Kuang on Vimeo.



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