As Light Goes By
Album

Vilhelm Hammershøi’s (1864-1916) 'Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor' (1901), which served as inspiration for the As Light Goes By installation. The painting resides at the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen and a public domain image of the artwork is available in the Gallery's digital collection.

First different parts of the painting were photoshopped into separate pictures, which were printed on paper and attached to the pop-up structure with double-sided, adhesive foil. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Cut outs were made to the window frame so that the light of the LED could shine through. No laser cutter here, just a knife, a ruler and a lot of patience. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The image of the wall and the sitting figure were attached ultimately on a 3mm plastic sheet in order to make a sturdy wall piece. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Manual photoshopping. Felt tip pens turned out to be useful for fine-tuning color details. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Sawing the floor piece of the installation, which was made from multiplex wood. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The floor piece was painted black. Thankfully there was a tube of black acrylic paint in my art supplies. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Drilling holes to the floor piece for attaching the wall and the rest of the parts. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Little feet were also glued on the floor piece. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The first prototype of the track mechanism which moves the LED back and forth. The mechanism consisted of 3D printed plastic parts, metal rods and thin rope. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Few rounds of prototyping were made until the track mechanism was ready. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The finished track mechanism including detachable wires which are connected to the electronics board. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The motor which moves the LED along with the black end switch on the right. Both ends of the track contain such microswitches, each of which is connected to a different coil of a bistable relay. This set up enables the reciprocating movement of the LED carrier. When the carrier reaches the end of the track and pushes a switch, the relay changes the state of its output switches. They form a simple H-bridge, which reverses the polarity and thus changes the direction of the motor, resulting in the carrier starting to move in the opposite direction. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The bistable relay set up with the microswitches, which enabled changing the direction of the LED carrier, was tested first in order to achieve the desired result. In the first experiment the set up was used to turn a regular LED on and off. Once this worked, the actual circuit was tested and build step-by-step. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Measuring voltage spikes from induction when the motor switches direction. The spikes seemed to be within acceptable limits and did not cause trouble. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Soldering the electronics board. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Circuit schematic. A 5V power supply was used for powering the circuit. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Preparing the power supply. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Finished board. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

An installation puzzle ready to be solved. The installation was designed so that it can be disassembled and fits conveniently to a hand luggage sized suitcase. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Assembling the parts, starting with the motorized music box. The melody in the music box is Spring from Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but it is played so slowly that one can hardly recognize it. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The machine from the front. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The electronics backstage. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

Sideways shot. -- CC BY / Kati Hyyppä

The machine set up next to the original painting at the National Gallery's Hammershøi room. After some check ups and little tweaks the installation was ready to run! -- Photo by Neea Laakso