Light Valves

2022 100cm x 80cm grid of dimmable, addressable shutter glass squares suspended from the ceiling

Shutter glass is glass whose transparency can be altered with electricity. This piece contains sixty-four individually-controllable squares of shutter glass arranged on rows of thing copper wire, all hanging suspended in a grid from the ceiling.

It can be suspended horizontally facing downward, or vertically facing out. Backlighting is built in, illuminating the surface behind it to create a better contrast when viewing the glass panes.

Each square is individually addressable and dimmable from transparent to fully opaque. There is a custom control PCB framing each square of glass, and each square is suspended from copper wires carrying power and data. Each pair of rows is controlled by a separate driver PCB, and the entire piece is driven from a custom TouchDesigner UI on a host PC.