Lightsail, 2024

Inspired by Haans Haacke’s Blue Sail, this piece is a translation of the gusting irregularity of wind over time. Lightsail uses a custom-built galvanometer to project a shortwave near-ultraviolet laser onto a phosphorescent sail fluttering in the wind of a fan. Controlled by programs I designed in TouchDesigner, the galvanometer rapidly moves the point of the laser, resulting in the illusion of continuous shapes. The phosphorescent sail is excited by the high energy light of the laser, causing it to glow wherever it is struck. This results in the sail fleetingly capturing a record of its own shifting motion as the wind changes the relative positions of the laser’s point and the sail. Drawings created as a byproduct of an endless chase across the page