Laser art...or "Who Arted ?"

[RDS]

Hello Forum members,
I have a question…Is there an interest in the static display of laser light ?. Prior to the advent of the “Laser Show”, there was some artistic display of JUST coherent light…back in the 80’s…at least that is what the net sez!!! I did not personally see any of these displays !! And maybe there are still some current displays ??? Laser shows are a thing of beauty !!!! They are just expensive ( Even the very cheapest entry) and need a great amount of space to display !!!!!
It seems as though there might be a “need” here…then again…I may be the only one who has this opinion !!! I would like to have a small compact “ display…for desk or wall that presents coherent light….just for its own intrinsic beauty. Am I ”out there”??? …past the Ort Cloud ???? Just seems as though a “vehicle for display” would be of some interest…especially to this group ???
Assuming that there is an interest…are there any ideas out there on what would look good??….again keeping in mind the restraint of a somewhat small size !!! Such a display could incorporate some beam articulation???...or could be coupled to a clock…such that the display would fire at predetermined intervals….and the clock function would also justify the presence in a room/office setting ?????
I have several more ideas!!!! However…prior to posting,(IF I post)….I am curious as to the groups opinion/reaction ???? Thanx!!

[the_kcar]

In my office at home base I have a white spider web which glows under blacklight -- across entire celing....

I've a few ideas, with the idea of "clock" in mind...basically, images which rotate across celing in red, yellow, green, in specific pattern as given with carefully placed surface-reflectant mirrors, to keep time...would take someone who "knows" how to read it to glance up at pattern in celing .....

Other ideas I've come up with I'm notyet ready to post, as Bengal here swears I'm an alien just waiting to unzip my human costume...don't want to frighten the poor guy

Wonder if anyone else has ideas???

[the_kcar]

Marconi and I were talking about laser art stuff, and there's couple URLs that I saved up - he mentioned a PM and I thought: hey: how's about I g'head and post the URLs , see if anyone takes up in the direction I'm lookin' in...

Lava lamp...great glowie gooze to play with

http://www.fractalfreak.com/goo_projector/index.html

http://www.oozinggoo.com/howto.html

...have fun arting around some

[RDS]

Hello all,

YES..that is the type of " thing " I am talking about !!! And even much better !!! A completely silent, self sustaining, random display of movement..coupled with Light Amplification by Stimulated emission of Radiation....Ah yes...
" Coherent Chaos " !!! And yes Kcar, my PM to Marconi is congruent to this type of presentation.

It seems as though the " hobby " has really taken a " Black eye " as of late...with all the negative press on an extreme minute group of complete idiots, who insist on utilizing the amazing tools of current laser technology, to
obtain some kind of warped " cheap thrill " while they play Buck Rogers/ Star Ship Trooper and possibly endanger peoples lives...To this I say..GROW UP !!
You may " Flush this hobby down the toilet " by your infantile, irresponsible behavior !!

OK...Of f the " Soap Box " !! I would assume that 100% of readers of this form would agree !!! I will add that it would be good if somehow the group could offer to the public...some other avenue of useage for the available technolgy....Another " lock for the key " kinda thing !!!Granted that laser technology has surly impacted just about everything in our lives...but the average Joe/tte still likes to put their personal spin on things. This would be a good direction !!!

Thanks for reading yet another " Rambling by RDS " !!! Love to hear your opinion !!( Ah...Maybe !! )

[the_kcar]

Dollar store laser pointers still catch the eye of the everyman, but if it can perhaps be made into ...oh...a galaxy across the celing, or an internally-installed windowbox infinity mirror....the ways are endless.

I can see where you are going with this...create laser uses for the everyman, so that the everyman with squash the governmental regulations on laser configurations, use, and ownership...but that's a hard one to master, don't you know?

Need to get artists together geographically I guess, and create an outlet for them.

*sigh*

Easier said than done, I'm afraid, but I've six or twelve projects lined up on a shelf awaiting time to make time for them. And no, the wording is not redundancy, it's accuracy.

Ttys.

[yaddatrance]

Ha, this jogged my memory.

Actually, I have a newspaper clipping an old man gave me (that he had kept
from his childhood) when he found out I did lasers shows (back in the '90s)
The clipping is from 1968 which showed a few clips from one of the original
laser shows. Amazing! It was actually a high resolution graphic image which
wouldn't be put to shame by modern systems!

I'll see if I can dig out a scanner and put it online, this is worth saving for
posterity.

The control deck was all analog and the number of points in the frame was
preset to 100. So to make a frame, you actually spun dials which controlled
X and Y for each point in the frame. Then they recorded each frame to
reel for playback. Awesome, but dear god must it have sucked to make
those frames.

[the_kcar]

That'd be GREAT! I'll keep my eyes open for it

[yaddatrance]

Heh, I also added some photos to my gallery (Thanks spec)

http://photonlexicon.com/gallery/yaddatrance

You'll have to slug past the first two pages to find cool stuff

[RDS]

Me too. I still think we have an untapped market " out there ""

[yaddatrance]

I've personally just starting building my own equipment with like-minded
friends for personal shows... We try to one-up each other with neat stuff.

Monroe? Wow, I moved to SoCal from Michigan 5 or so years ago...
I still have a story about the "monroe mile"...

Basically I drove up to visit a friend who lived in Monroe and along the way
we got lost and met a guy walking down the country road who gave us helpful
instructions to the road we're looking for...

"Yer on the right road... It's about one mile, mebbe less from here"

35 miles down from where he pointed, we found it!

On the way back, we ran into someone who thumbed us for a ride, we stopped
to give'm a lift and asked his story... Turns out he was just released from the
county jail and was walking home. Suitably impressed, we asked him what he
did time for...

"Snaggin'"

Unfamiliar with the local terminology, we asked what it was... Turns out, it's
illegal to catch fish with a fishing pole without using any bait. Never knew it
was so common that they made up a word for it, much less a law.