kinetic chandelier Silke



My final project at the University of Art and Design in Halle consists out of a robotic chandelier that has its own way of creating a constantly changing light-atmosphere. It does react to people and the general light condition surrounding it but usually in different ways. It only works as long as it does not have to compete with other bright light. Basically it consists out of twelve arms that can individually move and direct a light-beam from their tip to any point at the room. The single arms move a bit like the tail of a cat and together with the sounds of 24 servo-motors it immediately creates the feeling a living creature might be present.

Until now Silke is simply following the movement of any spectator. At the beginning only single arms react but if the person gets louder or moves faster more arms start to look at you. If you get really loud and get really close at the same time, she gets scared and moves up every single arm. After a while she calms down but remembered who scared her and reacts nervous, trying to move the arms away from the "scary" person.

My plan is to try the following stuff as soon as I get the possibility to exhibit the chandelier.

According to the movements or sounds the visitors make right after the lamp completed a distinctive act, it decides if whatever it was doing made an interesting impression onto its observer or not. This way a database of movements and choreographies of the different arms, slowly fills itself and will enable the lamp to have a base of acts it can fulfill to provoke certain reactions.