Our second project was to create a lantern, to experiment with the medium of light.
I began by drawing lines all over the template out of lack of ideas. Later, I figured that I could make a lightweight wood frame similar to the patterns that I had drawn, along with some straight-hanging wire for interesting shadows, and place a light source inside the frame. Nice and simple.
I saved some Halloween decorations from the trash chute of my dorm, namely white polyester “cobwebs” and fluttery, seemingly tattered, loose black crochet (?), the black fabric used to make areas seem more spooky. I mostly thought, I can use this for a space project!!! because I like collecting free material.
Later, I bought some basswood and used aluminum wire to connect the pieces of wood into a frame. Then I used cut wooden coffee stirrers to reinforce the frame and to imitate the patterns previously on the template. Wire did not connect the pieces properly – the frame kept falling apart – so I had the idea to take string (probably cotton?) from the black Halloween fabric to tie the wood together. This method worked much better. The string seems like it has more friction with the wood to stick them to each other. I replaced most of the wire with this string.
My dorm is about a 25 minute walk from class, and I was worried that the frame would come apart on the commute to and from campus, so I took to stuffing it with the polyester cobwebs, which did protect it from getting banged up. It looked interesting, almost like a cloud, so after some experimentation with draping the black fabric, I went with the cobwebs. With a light source inside, the lantern emits a soft, delicate glow.
The lantern is tall and the polyester is visually dense. When I used my phone as a light source on the bottom of the lantern, only the bottom lit up, and no light met the top. Therefore, I needed more than one light source. I borrowed my roommate’s flashlight and put it inside the lantern, which made it better. A classmate lent me her phone to try having a light on top. This looked much better. So in the final photographs, the lantern has three light sources: two phones, one flashlight.
The refrigerator and the bathtub seemed like fun places to put this lantern. Both are somewhat reflective and have little color, like my lantern, and the glow of the light in both relatively small, enclosed spaces felt fitting.
Nature felt fitting for the lantern as well, in its soft, almost organic feel. I took the exterior shots in the bushes outside of my dorm. Also, I did not want to risk damaging my friends’ phones and flashlight, so I did not take the piece too far away from the safe haven of the dorm.
