Working Period: October 2016 - March 2017
Tools: Arduino IDE
This is a lampshade which imitates a form of lotus flower, which is a buddhist symbol representing “the purity of body, speech and mind”.
Since the middle age, a kind of lamps using paper and wooden lampshade and vegetal oil became popular in Japan as a light source for interior. It is called “andon” (行灯).
This lighting tool has a wooden frame and paper cover to diffuse the light of fire, and some people shapes frames so that they look like graphics; many of them are abstract, but some of them are shape of crescent moon, etc. People enjoyed the design of shade created by the lampshades, as well as diffused “texture” of light.
I would like to study expressions by shades and shadows, which is in the same direction as the concept of “In Praise of Shadows” (陰影礼賛) by Junichiro Tanizaki. He mentioned that people in Japan cognize the beauty of shades and shadows; softness and warmness of gradient which come from humid climate and diffusion of light by traditional materials for crafts and architectures, and assumed to optimize for them when people design crafts, in his book.
To develop actual lampshade, I need something suits this direction of expression and can be moved, to learn the basics of operation of mechanical things. The lotus flower meets both conditions, because the structure of it can be moved, and buddhists concept has been widespread among east- and south-east asian countries, and integrated to indigenous “Shinto” (神道), a kind of aminism in Japan, since 6th century, when buddhism was introduced.
このインスタレーションは、仏教における蓮と谷崎潤一郎著「陰翳礼讃」より着想を得て制作されました。
東洋的な湿度感を孕んだ光の拡散、あるいは陰影の階調を生む一要素である間接光を物理的な変化と組み合わせて表現の可能性を検証することを目的としています。
東洋的な湿度感を孕んだ光の拡散、あるいは陰影の階調を生む一要素である間接光を物理的な変化と組み合わせて表現の可能性を検証することを目的としています。
