Figure eight knot

This is the knot we decided on using, as it is significantly stronger than common double knots especially with the fishing wire (though it's much more fiddly to work with).

Another design for the stand

Those gaps between the umbrellas were too much of a problem that we thought had to be resolved, so we thought of adding more umbrellas to the stand...

Here we have nine umbrellas - that left one on the bottom level should be more toward the pole

Look at that density!

We still have yet to model this properly... but we have to wait until Wednesday when the metal workshop's open

Playing with umbrella layers and adding the speaker

We tried alternating the heights of the umbrellas so there are only two 'layers'

Still some gaps...

Umbrellas with the sinkers attached - we're working on making some small sandbags to test out the alternative

Still some big gaps... which may be due to the arms at different angles...

Speaker fixed to the bottom of the top plate - having the source up here is sooo much better, and it draws your attention up too!

New stand - tensioning

Detail of the eye bolt connection for the tensioning cords

Cords going straight down (sorry it's difficult to see)

Cords cable-tied to the centre pole

Here is also a small example of having the umbrellas tied toward the centre (instead of hanging straight down with 'weights')... we don't really like the effect.

New stand

We decided to try the arms of the stand spaced at equal angles from each other.

Arms are at 60 degrees to each other now instead of 90 and 45

The umbrellas now are at three different heights, but there's a problem of having too big a gaps when you stand in certain positions under the umbrellas

Issues and allocated event times

After our presentation on Monday there were a few issues that were brought up in the discussion, including

-the use of sinkers being a potential problem (people could pick them up and swing them around)

-people pulling on the umbrella handles

-the effect of the lights in brighter daylight

so these are a few things to think about.

We also got allocated our event times.

Our group is on the third - Saturday 9 Sept. 5-8:30pm

and the ninth - Sunday 16th Oct. 5-9pm

Update on the site placement

Just realised we haven't said much about the placement of the umbrellas on site, so now our proposal is to have two big clusters of umbrellas... (instead of 16)

We are thinking of either nine or ten stands, having 5 in one cluster and 4/5 in another. They will both be on the same side of the path so we will not need to spend more money on cable covering.

More testing - lights + sound + projectors!

Tried out the umbrellas with lights, sound AND a projector today. We have to be truthful and say the projectors really make a difference. Just tested out normal changing lights and also sound sensitive function with the projector.

Unfortunately there are still a few problems with the projector:

-With the umbrellas at heights of approximately 2.0m high (unlike the 2.5m when we tested it with the lens) the image is very small and only covers about three of the six umbrellas. The lens doesn't really help either since the umbrellas are at a closer distance, so the image can't be focused. We could however vary the heights of the umbrellas between each stand, which could resolve this problem - we'd also like to source a bigger lens and see if it helps.

-The base of the stand is not 'big' enough to hold the projector facing up, meaning we will have to modify the design of the base in order to fit it.

We could also carry out another test using sounds that are more related to the ones we are actually proposing (rather than just music)

The effect so far is extremely promising, but we'll have to test this in brighter day light, at the approximate times of the event. The thought so far is putting more emphasis on the sounds to create the environment, but whether that is a successful enough proposition comes down to the experimentation.

Taking the umbrellas outside

Tried out the lights on the umbrellas again today with the new stand to see if the increased density has made a positive impact.

We also tested it outside. Wind (even a small breeze) has quite an impact on them... Lights are starting to look a lot like the renders done earlier in the project!

The umbrellas from far off

Now we just need to focus on making them more 'environmental', not just looking as pretty lights...

We will test out lights and sound and projection... tomorrow night. We're also thinking of making the bottom layer of two umbrellas hang a bit further from the middle, as they seem to be obscuring the top layer of umbrellas at the moment.

p.s NOT ONE of the photos have been photoshopped!!

The video below demonstrates the effect of the umbrellas from afar.