PAFA Idea

[Matt Chernak]

I figured out what I really want to do for the PAFA installation. I'm not so sure if I can pull it off, but here it is...

Everyone seemed fascinated by the photochromatic pigments. If you sweep a UV laser beam over the white powder, it darkens into either blue, purple or magenta. Each color fades at different intervals much like disappearing ink. It would be easy for me to create a 4ft by 8ft blank canvas doped with this pigment (small portion of the budget).

A contrast ... UV reactive (glow in the dark) powder could also be used. The 4ft by 8ft canvas could be split in two with the photochromatic powder on the left half, and the UV glow in the dark stuff on the right.

The UV laser control can go down in three different ways:

1. User simply holds the laser and draws on the canvas from a distance. Very simple, kinda boring, but it would work and look very cool. Zero tech, but a playful display of chemistry and light in the two opposite extremes.

2. My netbook runs Processing with a movement script. The XY coordinates from somebody's hand movement (cursor) would trigger my Arduino to move the UV laser on an XY servo mechanism. (camera reads movement of hand, translates it to motors, moves laser to shoot on canvas for awesome user experience). I could not possibly do this in one month by myself.

3. Processing reads outline of human figure in motion, converts vector info to DMX output, draws it on the color pigment canvas in real time using an XY laser light show controller. ...not happening this year.

Any thoughts?