""Optical effects can transcend the public's everyday understanding of design," Zhang tells Design Milk. "Light can toggle between reality and illusion. In my work, I explore the reflection, refraction, and interplay of light and shadow, allowing the public to re-examine the boundary between reality and illusion amidst uncertainty.""
""When new transparent plastic materials are added, the shadows of the film become even more varied," the designer reveals. "Most interestingly, the addition of more transparent plastics creates a rainbow of colors in the patterns and shadows. This new visual effect intrigues me, and I'm currently designing new solutions.""
Bo Zhang's Lightware is a trio of transparent glass trays that animate surfaces through polarizing film and layered glass. Polarizing film controls light direction: stacked parallel it blocks light, stacked at 90 degrees it allows light to pass. The trays respond to viewer movement and ambient lighting, producing shifting shadows and patterns. Adding layers of transparent plastic increases variation and produces rainbow-like color effects in patterns and shadows. The project emphasizes noticing light's presence and the boundary between reality and illusion through changing optical phenomena.
Read at Design Milk
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