Project Update
The structure and overall outcome of the project is gradually getting finalised over this week, as I settle and roughly confirm how the set-up will be like: a reflective bubble surface, together with a 2D screen projection. Of course, this is only much simpler and truncated version of what my project – but I would have to first test the settings to see if it works.
The In-store Bubble Machine
I finally caved in and bought a bubble machine to investigate the structure of it! Which ended up being how I envisioned it to be. However, with the machine now, I was able to personalise the size of my bubbles, although, by using the machine’s old structure, the blowing speed of the machine was fixed and I was forced to make bubbles at a quick and fixed pace.
The machine was a powerful one which could produce numerous bubbles at high speed, as seen in the video below. The iridescent bubbles were the outcome of a better bubble solution, which came together with the machine as an add-on.
I proceeded to next dismantle the machine to see how the gears work. As I thought, it worked as how I suspected it to be: a fan and gears mechanism to rotate the bubble wand – together, there was continual rotation and movement to produce the bubbles. The bubble wand was continually rotated, being dipped in and out of the bubble solution. The fan at the back of the machine then blew the bubbles out manually.
Therefore as previously mentioned, I switched up and created my own bubble wand as I wanted a larger bubble surface area so as to do my projections on.
…which worked! I initially made a larger one but unfortunately I did not have a larger soap dish bowl and had to cut back in size.
Machines and Reflections in a Single Set-up
Initially, with my setup, I did want to try the above setup – the machine would generate bubbles, which would be projected upon and gain a reflected light surface, which bounces off the bubbles and would be reflected using mirrors into a projector screen/room wall/surface.
However, I admit that though it’s really doable, my setup was less than ideal.
Just to clarify, the boards in front of the bubble machine are placed intentionally to block the fan of the machine so that the bubble would remain ‘more static’ and allow for better reflective surface.
Only after doing video documentation did I realise that the reflective image.. was moving too much against what I had envisioned, and I thought that I had leeway to play with the bubble’s movement and use it as a compelling material for my project. In addition, I envisioned my reflection to be able to see more of the source image… no that did not happen.
Nevertheless, after discussion with prof Randall, perhaps I would move onwards to using the reflective image as source material and use digital manipulation to further the concept.
Sounds
I am currently working on the sounds on the side, and will combine it with the visual footage for the final outcome. It is still a work in progress! If possible, I would like the sounds to match the visual footage (eg. one beat = visual footage changes accordingly).
