Today we’d like to introduce you to Dylan Lovinger and TimM O’Connor.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
We are two scientists with a passion for light, geometry, and technology! Our mission is to build a more luminous world, through the fusion of technology, art, function, and form.
I (Dylan) am 28 years old, from Cape Cod MA. I moved to San Diego six years ago to pursue a Ph.D. in physics at UCSD, studying how light and matter interact with laser spectroscopy techniques. I’m fascinated by science and technology, which led me to pursue a degree in physics, but I’ve also always been interested in the visual arts, especially drawing. More recently, I’ve discovered the world of creative coding and hobby electronics – coding digital art and animations and working with LEDs. This has led to various electronics projects involving light and code, culminating in the most recent work, the HyperCube.
This project is really a fusion of everything I love: light, technology, and art. It’s a way to be a creative artist and a tech nerd at the same time while sharing something bright and beautiful with the world.
TimM is 30 years old, from Ohio. He received his Ph.D. in NanoEngineering from UCSD, with experience in the fields of solar energy, optoelectronics, integrated devices for human-machine interfaces, and business/entrepreneurship. He is now working as a senior engineer and lead for industrialization at a large photonics company. TimM has a love for light and radical art, and is an instrumental force in our endeavor to bring illuminated art like the HyperCube to people around the world!
Please tell us about your art.
Our work is named the HyperCube – a hi-tech, ultra-chromatic art piece that simulates the appearance of an infinite amount of light and space contained within a finite volume. It’s an infinity-mirror cube filled with hundreds of LEDs, within which custom coded light patterns and effects endlessly move and dance about.
The uniqueness of this piece is not just in the cube’s physical form and construction, but also in the code written to generate light patterns. It’s a fusion of digital and physical, of technology and art. Light patterns are coded specifically to complement the geometric symmetry of the cube, with a wide variety of colors, speeds, and effects. Some of the patterns are even sound reactive, causing the lights to dance and shimmer in tune with music played around it.
What’s more, there’s a science lesson here. The infinity mirror effect is the result of the physics and geometry of light interactions. The faces of the cube are semi-mirrored so that when light emitted from LEDs inside hits a face, it is partially transmitted through and partially reflected back inside. The reflected light continues bouncing back and forth and partially escaping, resulting in the infinity effect.
As such a visually engaging and luminescent piece, we hope that the HyperCube can dazzle onlookers and brighten lives. We want to build a brighter world. And further, we hope it can inspire others to create in radical, unconventional ways. Technology and code is art just as much as a painting or sculpture is. There is no limit to the ways you can be creative, so share your own light with the world in whatever way you can!
What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
With the modern prevalence of social media and funding platforms like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, I think that artists today have more opportunity than ever. Utilizing the tools we have today can give artists an opportunity for exposure and funding that hasn’t existed in the past. It’s how we made our start, and I encourage anyone else with the inclination to create to do the same. In addition, I believe art is becoming more prevalent and is more widely appreciated than ever. Not only in quantity, but in the variety and breadth of mediums, with more people trying their hands at creativity. Art is not only for professional artists, it’s for everyone, and I think more of us are coming to realize this.
Community is the best way to encourage art and artists – creating spaces and events where we can share and observe each other’s art. San Diego is great for this, but it could always be better, with more events and more publicity for them.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
There is currently only one HyperCube, and it’s not on display often as we are using it to code new functionality and patterns. However, we are building more! A few months ago, we successfully finished a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for our new business, the Hyperspace Lighting Company, and we’re now hard at work establishing manufacturing lines to create more HyperCubes. We are planning to deliver in August of 2019, and we’ll have sales open in a few months on our website for anyone to purchase their own cube!
We do occasionally bring the HyperCube out to events, so follow along on our social media pages to know when that happens.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hyperspacelight.com
- Email: hello@hyperspacelight.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/hyperspace_lighting
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/hyperspacelighting
Image Credit:
Christian Villareal
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
