Lantern Building
Research
Bruce Munro
The installation artwork of Bruce Munro is often mesmerising in scale, covering entire fields in glowing reeds (top) or CDs (below) for example (Munro, 2023).
The size of his installations means he has to work around, and therefore with, the landscapes they find themselves within. He also works directly with natural forms, and so the resulting pieces seem to be a natural extension of nature, flowing with hills and with the repetitive patterns of meadow plants.
The light installations create immersive experiences, places whose viewer experience the artist controls fully. The idea to heighten the experience of natural environments — amplifying existing elements — interests me as a form of augmented nature therapy.
Rune Guneriussen — ‘A parasitic gesture’
Images credit: Rune Guneriussen (2010) via MESSYNESSY (2013).
In his series ‘A parasitic gesture’ the Norwegian artist Rune Guneriussen uses found objects to create strange, mesmerising installations, typically in natural environments. The objects appear to ‘invade’ the space (MESSYNESSY, 2013), growing on rocks or trees, sometimes swarming in grass. His pieces create environments that aren’t earthly, disconnecting the reality from the experience, creating moments of immersive escape for a viewer without entirely changing their surroundings. The power of lighting installations to change environments and further immerse viewers in natural areas interests me.
Electroluminescence and Glow Stick or Neon Imitation
Electroluminescence, distinct from LEDs and incandescence, provides a low power, although high voltage, diffuse source of light.
Disposable Batteries Recharged
Elf Bar 600 Background
This common kind of disposable vape pen is designed to last a few days, providing 600 puffs (Vapor Shop Direct, s.d.). The pen is non-rechargeable and non-refillable by design, and requires effort to change that, which many users choose to avoid. The pens are not meant to be disposed of in normal household waste or recycling, but taken to small electronics recycling. However research by Truth Initiative (2021) shows that the majority of young people dispose of disposable vapes incorrectly.
To prevent the waste, I considered whether key components of vapes could be reused for my project, as I was planning on buying small lithium batteries to power my lamps.
An response to an online blog (SeaManager7721, 2023) suggested that the batteries were in fact lithium and so suitable to be recharged.
A blog post on hackaday.io, a website for DIY computer and other hardware and software projects, demonstrated various uses for disposable vapes, including an electric screwdriver.
Dissassembly
TP4056 BMS
The TP4056, after some online research appear to be the best chips suited to these small single sell lithium ion batteries (bigclive.com, 2022). The cutoff (2.5v unloaded) and charge limits (1A, 4.2v) match the cells, as well as their load (~300mA drops the voltage to around 2.5 when the terminal voltage is actually 3v, the lower limit for lithium cells). They run off usb-c power supplies, which are some of the most common.
Installing BMS and attaching LEDs
I chose some small LED chips within the maximum power for the cells (the cell can supply around 600 mA happily) and a similar voltage range.
Given the battery voltage of 3.7v and the forward LED voltage of 3.4v, a resistor is needed to limit current and drop the requisite 0.3v. Assuming a 300mA current:
R = V/I
= 0.3 / 0.3
= 1 ohm
However given peak terminal voltage of 4.2v
R = V/I
= 1.2/0.3
= 4 ohm
I chose to go with 5.1 ohm resistors as the value is standard (starting with a 10ohm resistor as it was all I had available).
Breaking the test vape into its components, battery shown last.
The LED chips and BMS
Garden soldering, components with their connectors, components in circuit.
Battery charging (red light), battery charged (blue light).
I checked voltage across the battery, verifying that it had reached 4.2v.
Initially I had issues with the LEDs not lighting, however this turned out to be an issue with the polarity.
The LEDs eventually lit. The higher resistance (10ohms) increases battery life (roughly 2 hours vs ~1 hour at 5 ohms) but made them too dim for lighting lanterns, as originally anticipated. The higher value resistors fix this issue.
Laser Cut Paper Lanterns
Design
For my first design, I worked with the sort of template that fits a ‘snowflake’ lantern, where symmetrical cuts let light through in regular patterns. I created a design using a Philodendron I saw in a public garden in Marrakesh as a template. I laser cut my pattern onto sheets of differently coloured A4 paper, and folded it, creating the lantern. The folding goes against the natural form of the paper, so cut-out areas remain flat, giving the surface depth.
Results
The lanterns lit well, even projecting forms in the leaf shape onto the walls around them.
I found a small jar worked well to hold a tea light within the shade.
Plastic Blowing and Manipulation
Bottles
Inspired by the work of , I decided to try and play with plastic forms, using a heat gun to soften them and then an air compressor (originally just a hair dryer) to create new, distorted forms.
The plastic, however, being inflation-molded already for many packaging containers like I used, is very thin. The forms tended to tear before distorting, and had limited pliability before damage. PET milk bottles worked best, and I chose to light these after my next experiments.
Rigid Sheet Plastic
I experimented using thicker off cuts of acrylic, using the same heat gun but instead plying the pieces. The forms were much more satisfactory, appearing organic with little deformation.
Contextualisation
Coloured Lighting
Using my front and rear bike lights in the photography studio, I arranged the forms as lanterns, photographing the projected light they produced.
BnW Photograms
I made a series of black and white photograms following this. A drying issue left them stuck together, so some marks remain. The forms remind me of x-ray photogrammetry, and highlight the forms of the bottles in high contrast.
Further Research: Chessboard and Chinese Lantern Flowers, and Star Fruit
The forms of the flowers : Chinese lantern (Physalis alkekengi) and chessboard (Fritillaria meleagris) as well as that of the star fruit (Averrhoa carambola) inspired my next lantern design.
Second Lantern Design
3D Design
I created a design with 6 axis of symmetry in Shapr3D, initially with some curved surfaces.
I then used a program in blender called ‘Export: Paper Model’ (Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Paper Model - BlenderWiki, 2023) to help convert the model into a net for paper assembly. The curved surfaces presented an issue for the tool, leaving this complicated and unusable result:
I then revised the design to have only flat surfaces:
This turned into a successful paper net:
Mockup
I converted the file to be laser-ready and executed a cut on an A3 sheet. The size of the mockup made assembly difficult, but showed that the form translated successfully from concept to reality.
Full Scale
Laser Cutting
I then used A1 card to create larger scale models. There were many issues, from focus to file type, with using the older machine capable of the large scale needed. Once these were overcome, I calibrated the power with some test squares, leaving the result:
I then cut 4 sheets of different, natural-pallet coloured card.
The sheets after being cut and engraved.
Assembly
I then assembled each one, using tape instead of adhesive as this worked better for the larger scale, as I discovered with the first lantern here. Dude helped with manufacturing.
The second finished lantern.
Inside of a lantern prior to final assembly.
All four together.
A possible route for expansion would be the arrangement of a much larger number (10s) of the lanterns together in organic patterns. The four together, however, I was very pleased with.
The card proved too thick for lighting using the single cell - single LED setup. A multi-cell setup would likely prove effective, using the same reused batteries.
Contextualisation of Lantern Work in Show
When putting my show together, I considered two angles to the work. Firstly, the reused vape batteries. Secondly, the larger-scale, colour-model lanterns.
To demonstrate the reuse of batteries, I splayed the electronics across the leftmost part of my wall space. I then labelled each component, like a 3D system level diagram. The cables can be dis- and reconnected to save power. I used the small paper mockup as this lighting circuit has a higher resistance than the maximum power output (10ohm vs 5ohm) and so doesn’t penetrate the card of the larger models as effectively.
On vs Off.
The larger models hang around my installation, suspended on clear fishing wire as to give the strongest impression possible of floating.
Image also shows installation as a whole, in its almost ready state.
Reference list
bigclive.com (2022) Don’t do this! (There’s a much safer way). At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M88e1r8nvYk (Accessed 28/03/2023).
BU-402: What Is C-rate? (2021) At: https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-402-what-is-c-rate#:~:text=Often%20in%20engineering%20terms%2C%20the%20letter%20C%20is (Accessed 05/05/2023).
Dongguan Perfect Amperex Technology Limited (2023) 13400-550mAh. At: https://www.patlcell.com/en/product/product-414.html (Accessed 05/05/2023).
Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Paper Model - BlenderWiki (2023) At: https://archive.blender.org/wiki/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/PaperModel/ (Accessed 19/05/2023).
Guneriussen, R. (2010) ‘A parasitic gesture’. [Found objects, Digitally Imaged] At: http://www.runeguneriussen.no/01aparasiticgesture#0 (Accessed 24/03/2023).
MESSYNESSY (2013) Retro Objects invading Nature. At: https://www.messynessychic.com/2013/03/08/retro-objects-invading-nature/ (Accessed 24/03/2023).
Munro, B. (2023) Bruce Munro - Work. At: https://www.brucemunro.co.uk/work/ (Accessed 09/03/2023).
SeaManager7721 (2023) r/Vaping - [NSFW] Does anyone reuse the batteries inside disposable vapes? At: https://www.reddit.com/r/Vaping/comments/q24scl/doesanyonereusethebatteriesinsidedisposable/ (Accessed 10/03/2023).
Truth Initiative (2021) A toxic, Plastic problem: E-cigarette Waste and the Environment. At: https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/toxic-plastic-problem-e-cigarette-waste-and-environment (Accessed 10/03/2023).
Vapor Shop Direct (s.d.) Elf Bar 600: Complete Guide. At: https://www.vaporshopdirect.com/blogs/news/elf-bar-600-complete-guide (Accessed 10/03/2023).
Wikipedia Contributors (2020) Electroluminescence. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescence (Accessed 24/03/2023).
