Skip to content

#TBT: Light Leaks by Kyle McDonald

Light Leaks was created by Kyle McDonald and Jonas Jongejan for the CLICK Festival 2013 in Helsinger, Denmark, and is comprised of several mirror disco balls projected pixels around the room.

Light Leaks creates an immersive experiences of peripheral projected effects that fill a room with light in away that cannot be achieved by simply using flat projected images. Kyle described that the project drew inspiration on his previous work with Joanie Lemercier at ScreenLab in Machnester along Elliot Wood’s work, ExR3.

In the authors own words:

A scattered array of fifty mirror balls reflect light from three projectors, filling a room completely with small reflections, casting patterns that fill the visitor’s peripheral vision. Creating a curious space that alternates between a meditative state, and an uneasy imbalance. An experiment in combining a found object with computer vision to create a profound and unusual experience.

An array of projectors are used arranged around the room that point at the balls placed in the center of the room. Structured light scans capture patterns reflecting off the balls and hitting different parts of the room. With three projectors, the collection of scan structured light patterns reaches 200-250 images that allows them to capture the 3D position of every pixel being projected by each projector. With all the data at hand, an alignment process with a 3D model built in SketchUp provides references between the captured points and the 3D model.

Awesome stuff!

light_leaks_kyleJonas_10

light_leaks_kyleJonas_08

light_leaks_kyleJonas_07

light_leaks_kyleJonas_06

light_leaks_kyleJonas_05

light_leaks_kyleJonas_04

light_leaks_kyleJonas_021