lux, 2021

Variable

Lux Readings, Audio, GPS Data 

Lux started conceptually as I contemplated what defined “light art”. Could a light piece be presented without light immediately present, yet still is an integral part of the work? Pondering this question, I sought to create something in opposition to some impressions – that light had to be present in a “light” piece. This notion took me down a journey of research, discussions, and experiments. Inspired by the documentative walks of Richard Long, lux captures a night walk, through light, along Singapore’s Green (Railway) Corridor, a national heritage path that holds a personal history as a place of reflection and exploration. Defined as light incident per unit area, lux elucidates the walk abstractly through a combination of ambient light measurements along the corridor and GPS positioning, allowing audiences an abstract yet relatable experience to reimagine this journey.

Ironically, light still remains fundamental to lux as audiences perceive the composition with light.

The Process…

Real life data collection was obtained through a combination of a wearable Arduino device outfitted with a lux sensor to read light intensity of the surrounding environment, placed on the shoulder, and Google Fit allowing tracking, to track the physical activity at the time with readings taken at one-second intervals. The collected location data - latitude and longitude, and light data, in lux, was then downloaded, preprocessed and utilized to plot the route taken. Each circle’s size and transparency then was mapped in proportion to the light intensity at each point and plotted along a black background to illuminate the route of the walk and animated using Python to create an abstract but recognizable path across the canvas.