Ember

Mixed media installation, 2010

Dimensions variable.
Lamps, monofilament, electronics, computer, custom software.

Collaboration with Pat Gallagher.

Ember is an interactive light installation designed to conjure notions of Victorian inventors’ efforts to communicate with the dead, using technology as a medium. Twelve modified lamps are suspended in the center of a darkened room. Each is fitted with a reproduction Edison-era light bulb that produces a quality of illumination not possible with contemporary incandescent bulbs. A special purpose camera system is used to track the positions of corporeal and non-corporeal visitors alike; custom software reacts to their presence and modulates the power applied to each lamp to create a warm glow reminiscent of a burning ember. Harmonic and chaotic waveforms are generated, driving the lamps to produce slowly shifting patterns of light. Each lamp becomes its own expressive channel, converting data into visible light.