Assignment 4

Concept

Inspired by Memo Akten, my concept is to simulate a row of searchlights fixed along the bottom of the screen. Each light oscillates back and forth using a sine wave.

The “personality” of the piece comes from the Phase Offset. Because each light starts its swing a fraction of a second after the one next to it, the beams create a harmonic wave effect as they sweep across the sky. I used high-transparency triangles to mimic the look of light passing through fog or haze.

Memo Akten’s Simple Harmonic Motion #6 Performance proof of concept (2011)

The Sketch

• Watch: The beams move in a synchronized wave.

• Interact: Move the Mouse to change the “Spread” of the lights. Moving Right makes the wave more chaotic; moving Left brings them into perfect sync.

• Click: To change the color palette from “Cold Searchlight” to “Warm Amber.”

Code Highlight

I am particularly proud of the display() function for the beams. Instead of drawing a simple line, I used a gradient-like approach with multiple triangles. This creates the “glow” effect where the light is brightest at the source and fades as it stretches into the dark.

display() {
    // We use a loop to draw layers of the beam for a glow effect
    for (let i = 8; i > 0; i--) {
      // As i gets smaller, the beam gets thinner and brighter
      let alpha = map(i, 1, 8, 15, 2); 
      let beamWidth = i * 4;
      
      fill(50, 20, 100, alpha); // Soft white/blue glow
      noStroke();
      
      push();
      translate(this.x, this.y);
      rotate(this.angle);
      
      // Draw the triangular beam of light
      triangle(0, 0, -beamWidth, -height, beamWidth, -height);
      pop();
    }
  }

Milestones

This was my first attempt. I successfully mapped the Sine wave to the rotation of a line, but it felt very mechanical and flat. There was no phase offset yet, so every light moved in perfect, boring unison.

In this version, I moved away from the basic “sticks” and made it actually look like a light. By drawing multiple overlapping triangles with very low opacity, I create the illusion of light scattering through a hazy or smoky sky. All that’s left is the interaction!

Reflection and Future Work

This assignment highlighted how much “mood” can be created with very little code. By using Simple Harmonic Motion to drive rotation and layering simple shapes with transparency, I created a complex, atmospheric environment. Future improvements:

• Particle Haze: I would like to add tiny “dust” particles that catch the light only when the beam passes over them.

• Sound-Reactive: Having the beams “grow” or “shrink” in length based on the volume of a music track.

• 3D Volumetric: Moving this into a 3D space where the beams can rotate on two axes, allowing them to point toward or away from the viewer.