Starry Kaleidoscope

 I thought it was interesting when I noticed during our drawing session last week that rotating the paper below the mirrors somehow had a very nice animated kaleidoscope effect, and I wanted to design an exhibition where people could not only observe how different arrangements of mirrors would result in different patterns, but also have fun seeing a smooth animation-like warping of a painted nightsky under their feet.

Ideal Interaction: I would actually want this to be a large scale exhibition, where people could push the painted wheel below and adjust it's spinning speed, and walk around looking into the different mirrors. The photo below shows the approximate scale I would like it to be.

As said above, if I were going to use this as my final project, I would definitely rebuild it completely because of the scale to say the least. After hearing the advice given and looking back on the process, I think I also definitely should have still made the model bigger at first, because the hinges I made were too small and easily came loose just because the glue melted it. I would also try other alternatives of making actual curved mirrors to contrast with the multipaneled curve-approximating mirrors, thought I think those worked surprisingly well!

I actually spent a whole night in Room 36 first trying to make curved mirrors with the exact curvature I wanted, but the methods I tried resulted in extreme wrinkles in the materials which did not have strong enough reflective properties to achieve the kaleidoscope effect. However a TA suggested a method that I think might work now I know how to use the tools in the woodshop-- using the spinning sandpaper mills in the woodshop to carve wood into curves, then melting clear acrylic sheets over them before trying to put mylar on these smoother surfaces.

Reflections on reflections: After seeing Clementine's project, I thought it would be really cool if there could be an exhibition that adjusted the "height" of the viewer-- where you would still be looking forwards but at a different height. I think it would be really powerful for adults to see the world from a 4-feet high perspective, and children would probably love to experience what it feels like "up there". I'd love to experiment with something like that!