STEPHANIE
ANDREWS
Untitled Neon Installation - University of Wisconsin 2002
This was a an outdoor sculpture that was made at the University of Wisconsin, Madison for a light arts festival by group from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I was the head designer and one of the main organizers. We had only one day to create the piece, build it, and take it back down, but it proved very popular and we had a constant crowd in front of the work. Given the fleeting nature of the installation, emphasis was given to the multifaceted lighting effects and neon animation. Suspended on a frame of PVC, twenty-some tubes of neon were sandwiched between two layers of irisedescent cellophane.
The neon was animated using a BASIC stamp microcontroller to turn on and off the power to the transformers that light up the tubes. There were five transformers, with one to three tubes of neon attached to each one and spread throughout the piece. All of this hardware was hidden inside the panel. With the wind blowing over the surface, the film refracted and reflected the neon inside to create a magical rippling ocean of color and luminescence.
