HeadSpace infinity chamber
 Matt Brand / Zintaglio Arts (contact✉)


HeadSpace is:

STATUS:  On long-term loan to the National Museum of Mathematics, 5th Ave & 26th St, NYC.

Project updates & photos:

2024

2024.03.17
Installed at MoMath, New York.
2024.03.10
Added mirror-stiffening struts to improve deep reflections.
2024.03.02
New, flatter mirrors with higher reflection quality.
2024.02.26
Revamped power and wiring for indoor venues.

2023

2023.11.11
Reconditioned for a Night Market in Somerville, MA.
2023.09.26
Back from the desert, caked with silt.
2023.09.01
Unbelievable weather.
2023.08.26
Installed!
2023.08.25
New art glass arrives.
2023.08.23
Metal arrives.
2023.08.05
Shipped!
2023.07.22
Packed for shipping to desert.
2023.07.21
Large hexagonal feet for soft ground installations.
2023.07.19
Wired in new voltage converter.
2023.07.18
New backings for LEDs cut from aluminum and ash wood.
2023.07.15
Hexagonal battery shelf for cradle
2023.07.13
Glassmaker E.B. to make a vertex lamp!
2023.07.12
Desert prep: ordered sealed buck/boost converter for power circuit, high-temp adhesive dual-lock tape for spines, UV-resistant zipties for mounting lights.
2023.07.11
Retrieved from shipper, moved to the Asylum for mods.
2023.07.09
Return ship/unload delayed due to heavy rains, flash flood conditions.
2023.07.08
Strike (4 hours, including packing and site cleanup).
2023.07.07
Thunder & lightning!
2023.07.05
Lots of visitors. Longer dwell times than expected.
2023.07.04
Forest installation (5 hours, including site clearing).
2023.07.02
Shipped!
2023.07.01
Packed! Hanging version collapses down to 1cm thick, plus 2 kit boxes.
2023.06.24
Added internal chandelier.
2023.06.23
Triangle-profile wooden backings for LED strips.
2023.06.22
Hinged porthole doors with magnetic latches. Dismantled cradle.
2023.06.21
Ordered SLA AGM battery; art shippers will no longer allow LiFePo4 batteries.
2023.06.20
Solar → battery → controller → lights → depletion cycle test.
2023.06.19
Folded corner hanging brackets into shape. Re-formed U-bolts to uniform radius. Made inclined washers for corner brackets. Finished support cradle for free-standing installations.
2023.06.18
Mirror chamber test assembly (2 hours, solo). The tab-locking clips work quite well, but since the laser kerf was a little larger than quoted, they will have to be pre-tensioned.
2023.06.17
Deburred all edges and removed the most egregious dross. Cleared out a store's supply of pool noodles.
2023.06.15
Laser-cut stainless mirror steel has arrived. Most of it is badly curled.

Looks like the mill failed to roll out coil set or underpolished one side leaving unbalanced surface tension. Also lots of dross at laser punch-points, which has scratched adjacent panels in the shipped package. Disappointing; the same vendor has previously sent much better stuff. Hopefully the edge locks will (mostly) straighten the curved mirrors.
2023.06.11
Cut-to-length and deburred all cradle struts. Test assembly of cradle.
2023.06.10
Remachined central cradle hub to loosen clearances.
2023.06.04
CNC-machined cradle hubs.
2023.06.03
Finalized support cradle design.
2023.06.01
Approved laser-cutter's drawings.
2023.05.30
Experimented with CNC plasma cutter. Not precise enough.
2023.05.29
Sound-responsive LED strip programming. Got average draw down to 2.1A, peak draw <4A.
2023.05.28
Cut-to-length & bridge wiring for all LED strips. Added crossbars to cradle for a battery/electronics shelf.
2023.05.27
Made wiring for solar/charger/battery/controller/LEDs
2023.05.24
Laser-cut steel order placed.
2023.05.21
Mirror panel and hanging bracket designs finalized. Ordered tree straps, chain, 120W solar panel, 10A charge controller, 20m 2812eco LED strips, programmable controller, 18Ah LiFePo4 battery, JST connector pigtails.
2023.05.14
Parametric CAD mockup for full mechanical/ergonomic design validation.
2023.05.13
Parametric code for generating laser-cutting paths for brackets. Deflection & sag calculations. Designed external stiffening spines for upper mirrors.
2023.05.12
Shrunk design to accommodate limitations of laser-cutting vendor's machine (4'x10' stock, 1.5" off long edge for handling clamps, 1/4" margin all around).
2023.05.10
OpenSCAD code for parametric cradle design.
2023.05.09
Sent preliminary drawings to steel laser cutting service for quoting & feedback.
2023.05.07
Laser-cutting drawings for mirror panels & locking clips.
2023.0.
Parametric code for generating laser-cutting paths for mirror panels.
2023.0.
OpenSCAD code for validating all tab-and-slot clearances.
2023.04.13
Grant secured for forest installation.
2023.03.30
Brochure for forest installation, hanging from trees. Thx to B.C. for render.
2023.03.16
Evaluation of reflective symmetry groups. Choosing cubille (space group #227: trigonal hexahedron).
2023.03.05
Code for infinity mirror chamber simulations via Cinderella GPU shader.
2023.03.04
Design sketches for a portable infinity chamber. Goals:

Design/fab by Matt Brand, Zintaglio Arts LLC. See some of our other BM projects:  Bottle Genii,  Virascope Alpha,  Mutatis Mutandis,  Gnomon,  the rhombiyurt, and someday,  the Mirrorverse and   FOXP

© 2008-2023 Matt Brand. All rights reserved. Trademark & patents pending.