Space in the Cass lab

Concept

Space has always been something that interests me.  I love the idea of being able to see the planets and stars from a spaceship, but obviously this isn't really something that can be done by your average person. So I thought that I could possibly bring the view of space to earth. I wanted to inspire people by making it look like they were looking out at space. Perhaps this would make them want to seek out ore information or go into a space-related field of work.


For my installation I decided to set up a project in which I projected space into the cass lab. To do this I scouted a location and then I started planning. The location I chose was a room on the second floor of the cass lab that has a large window.

Rendering

In order to get a handle of this idea, I drew up a simple space scene.

My ideas changed over time but in the beginning I wanted to have a star-filled sky with physical planets hanging down. Later on I decided all the space will be made up of just images projected on black backgrounds. 

Planning

 I felt that the metal structure of the window could be used. So I measured the windows and found that they were about 29 1/2 inch wide and about 30 inch tall. Using this information I got a bunch of black paper and cut them so that they'd completely cover the glass. Gaffer tape was used to attach them to the windows.

Overall I didn't need too much to make this set up but I did need some electronics and physical crafts.

Budget/Resources


Electronics

• Computer
• Speakers
• Projector
• Hdmi Cable

Programs

• Resolume
• Adobe Premier 

Craft Items

• Paper
• Gaffer Tape
• Exacto Knife
• Cutting Board

Content

• Space Images
• Video
• Space Audio 

I already had some of these items, like the speaker and computer. Though I did need to go and buy the paper and tape. 

The digital things I needed weren't too difficult too acquire. I made the video using premier. The video goes through a number of space images that I found on NASAs' image database.

They also had space sounds that I played through the speakers. 

https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/features/halloween_sounds.html

Now when it came to the programs themselves I only had to spend some time figuring out and setting up Resolume. The programs wasn't too difficult to work with and the only thing I really struggled with was finding out where the controls for certain things were. However I did manage to mask the video I had made and project it on to the windows. 

The Project

So I covered the windows, which as you can see in the picture above, is made up of nine sections. Now once those were covered I had to take turn the lights off. Some I just had to simply turn off using the light switch but there was one light that had to be unscrewed. 

Once I had the darkness that I needed I could project and adjust the masking. This wasn't too difficult since I just needed to make sure that the video of space stayed on the paper and didn't show up on the metal frame. Then I just needed to get the speaker set up and I was done.