Thanks to Everyone

Thanks to everyone from Ryerson University, FCAD, the Design Fabrication Zone, our generous hosts, the Bata Shoe Museum, and of course all the great volunteers who were instrumental in literally putting this project together! It proved to be a great success and we look forward to more initiatives like this in the future.

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And of course the requisite selfie from the First Year volunteers...

The coverage of the 2013 Nuit Blanche work at the Bata Shoe Museum

In performing a quick survey of the work done by the [R]ed[U]x Lab, there are some great highlights to serve as a reminder to all the teams that their work was appreciated by the public:

According to CTV News, Ad Astra was among the "10 things to see at the art-after-dark show":

"6. Light_Scape by [R]ed[U]x Lab at the BATA Shoe Museum, 327 Bloor St. W. This installation will grow organically the more people interact with it. Easy to handle cubes, each containing tri-colour LED that cycle through several colours, can be moved about. The cubes stick together with Velcro to create a whole new scene."

From the Torontoist:

"At the Bata Shoe Museum, the interactive audio project Ad Astra lights up the entrance. Strings of white lights contain a chrome ball which, when touched, plays a different instrument in the background song. The downside of it being mesmerizing: people are walking slowly through the narrow halls."

From Bazis' website, the Bata Shoe Museum was noted as one of the "Four must-see Nuit Blanche exhibits in Yorkville"

From SheDoesTheCity, the Light_Scape project was selected as one of their favourite pieces of the evening:

“This tactile installation relies on user interaction to grow organically. Each user contributes to the evolution of the Light_Scape, by altering the appearance of the surface. The Light_Scape consists of individual, easy to handle cubes, each containing a tri-colour LED that cycle through a spectrum of colour. The modular shape of the light cubes allows the user to freely explore limitless configurations and patterns. The cubes and subsurface are covered with Velcro, giving them the strength to defy gravity. The Velcro’s fuzzy texture diffuses light and produces a soft pulsing glow, which when accumulated, creates the illusion of a living organism.”

One thing that should be mentioned is that absolutely NONE of hte projects done by the [R]ed[U]x Lab would have been completed had it not been for Blaine and Frank's invaluable assistance in the production of all these projects!

Time Lapse of the Final Assembly of the Night Market Cart

Here is a brief time lapse of the [R]ed[U]x Lab Team assembling the bottom of the cart and putting the top canopy atop the base.  The lighting was then installed for good measure to see the effect of the grid structure relative to the brightness of the LED's.  It was a long night but the team pulled it together and demonstrated once again the students' initiative and pride in their work.

The Transport and Deployment of the Night Market Cart 2013

This morning the tireless [R]ed[U]x Lab team shipped out their cart design to the Honest Ed's parking lot site.  The team had enough foresight this year to make the cart such that it would be deployable by breaking it into two pieces (the top canopy and the bottom counter component) for easy shipping in the moving truck and simple assembly at the site.

Nestled among other cart designs, the [R]ed[U]x Lab cart will be facing the East such that its illumination will be emphasized as the shadow of the surrounding buildings serves as a backdrop.  The team also had to insert the serving modules for the evening in the cart and as you can see, they did it with ample time to spare... so much that they could go for a coffee break...

Let's just hope that the lighting effects will pan out as the initial design proposal had anticipated!

Letting the kids loose on the CNC

While the serving module team continued working away at the laser cutting and assembly of the clips and lighting components, the cart's structural team did a quick mockup of the base structure to get a sense of the joinery and nesting for the major waffle components.  Fortunately the second years were more than open to taking charge and getting the CNC router working in generating the first mockup components.

Getting the Cart Out

As there are four carts coming from Ryerson University (two from the School of Interior Design and two from Architectural Science), the Stop organizing committee decided to consolidate transport of the carts at the Interior Design parking lot.   The [R]ed[U]x Lab Team carefully popped the cart out of the Architectural Science building and took it out for a walk in downtown Toronto.  Turning heads and eliciting comments by strangers, the cart performed precisely as it should have, both in its portability and its evocative design.  The team does not profess to have a great deal of familiarity with vehicular design but the cart handled well enough to go down a couple of blocks in downtown Toronto (and jaywalking with it no less!) in rush hour traffic.

Lighting Trials

As the [R]ed[U]x Lab team puts the finishing touches on their Stop Night Market Cart design, they have been busy exploring the possibilities of lighting and powering the cart for the evening's festivities. Unfortunately power is something hard to come by in the Honest Ed's alleyway so the team has been experimenting with LED's, circuitry, and automotive batteries to keep the cart illuminated for the entire night.  Once again the staff and resources at the Department of Architectural Science assisted the team in sorting and sourcing out lighting support including multicoloured LED strip lighting.  Note the varying tones that can be set for the cart depending on the wiring configuration.