Sat, 10 May 2008 12:00am

New Laser Experiments

I've been doing some more studio work with computer controlled laser beams. It's mainly in preparation for an installation I will be doing at this year's Shambala Festival, but I also have some plans for some gallery based laser work.

Previously I have used a DMX device to control the laser. This gives a fair amount of control, but doesn't allow the animation capabilities of more powerful lasers to be accessed. For this I've started using an ILDA controller. It sounds technical, but basically this allows me to precisely control the beam and to send animations files to the laser. This allows for some amazing effects.

My next task is to try to use Max/MSP to send ILDA information to the laser. This will allow me to synchronise sound, video, lights and the laser animations.

Author: Sean Clark