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Experimental Design and Prototyping of a Moonlight Reflector for Theatre Lighting

Rei Sekiguchi

Experimental Design

and

Prototyping of a Moonlight

2024/2025

Iwouldliketothankmysupervisor,BedirBekar.Bedirwasextremly throughout this dissertation.

IwouldalsoliketothankmysupervisorandDP3designtutor,Simon fruition without your support.

Experimental Design and Prototyping of a

Dissertation

Supervisor: Bedir Bekar and Simon Beames

“The Full-Moon Theatre is a project which is just beginning.” - Peter Rice (1996)

Image Caption

explores the possibility of gathering and shaping moonlight to serve beam. imagination.

Ultimately, this dissertation positions making, in all its experimental, and attentiveness that emerge when design and making are deeply intertwined.

“Since man, fragment of the universe, is governed by the same laws that preside over the heavens, it is by no means absurd to search there above for the themes of our lives, for those frigid sympathies that participate in our achievements as well as our blunderings.”

M. Yourcenar, Memoires d’Hadrien, 1958

this knowledge build an argument as to why moonlight is appropriate varying degrees of lunar illumination and are illustrated in Figure 3

light levels and to shorter wavelengths. Even subtle gradients in

levels to avoid shadowing and maximise

in his bookAn Engineer Imagines.

were developed using various materials and geometries. A notable innovation was a lightweight mirror using 1.5 mm toughened glass,

Figure 5. Man illuminated by moonlight

Figure 6. Humbert Camerlo originally tested

drawing of 1992 and possibilities, yet aspiring to the same sensitivity to light, site,

Figure

Elevation drawing of 1991

Figure

Elevation

Focal Point

rays of starlight into a single point, enabling the observation of faint

instruments use metal mesh or perforated aluminum panels to form of the energy it is intended to manipulate.

Steel structure

Parabolic trough reﬂector

Absorber tube

environment, how it is assembled and disassembled, and how it

2.4.2 Components and the Beauty ofAssembly

exploration, and visible assembly.

movements. over multiple lunar phases.

full moon, it provides less than 0.3 lux of illumination, far below depth in Chapter 4.2.

Full moonlight yields approximately 0.25 lux at ground level—far

methodology, and manual operation strategy, a fully operational built around repetition, repairability, and lightness—readily supports not ornament.

lightweight, adaptable, and deeply human in its operation. Instead,

tilt angle plate, pivoted on the shaft and sleeved by a nylon bushing

toward the stage.

while remaining small enough to avoid interrupting the initial path

stage area. moonlight toward human expression.

diameter and depth.

from derived big mirror paraboloid.

from derived small mirror paraboloid.

M4X16MM Countersunk Bolt

M10 Dome Nut

M10 Flange Hexagon Nut Serrated

Small Mirror Timber Clamp 6MM Birch Plywood Clamp

Big Mirror Timber Clamp 19MM Ash Veneer Plywood

Aluminium Tripod Feet

Large Parabolic Mirror Segment 1MM Aluminium

Small Parabolic Mirror Segment 1MM Aluminium

Parbolic Mirror Edge Clip PLA

Ø10MM Steel Rod

Gimbal 6MM Aluminium

Ø200MM Acryilic Mirror

M8X18MM Threaded Inserts

M10X13MM Threaded Inserts

M4 Hexagon Nut

M4 Washer

M8 Clevis Pin

M5 Grub Screw

2MM Steel Wire Rope

Copper Wire Crimp

Aluminium Shaft Sleeve

Tripod Leg Brace 6MM Aluminium

Ø10MM Steel Threaded Rod

Ø24MM Steel Shaft

M2.5 Cotter Pin

Ø10MM Steel Shaft

Tripod Legs 19MM Ash Veneer Plywood

Ø10MM Nylon Sleeve

Cast Aluminium Shaft Sleeve

Ø16MM Aluminium Tube Spacer

Tilt Angle Plate 6MM Aluminium

M10X50MM Countersunk Bolt

M8X25MM Countersunk Bolt

4.3Assembly as Design:

but as an essential part of design, embodying the ethos that the

leg is to be inserted using a mallet.

25.Assembly of tripod legs together.

Figure

Building upward from the tripod, the next phase establishes the

bushing is inserted at the ends of the 10mm shaft within the tilt angle

Figure 30. 10mm steel shaft for tilting axis

timber plates.

tube with an outer diameter of 16mm and an internal diameter of

Figure 34.Aluminium mirror segments

Figure 35. Fully assembled primary mirror on

Experimental Design & Prototyping

Rhino 3D and translating this geometry into a spiral toolpath within

However, despite initial optimism, the prototype soon revealed the

evaluate paraboloid geometry.

material behaviours, exposed the inherent weaknesses of relying on seeded the next design shift toward segmentation and modularity,

Figure 46. Close up photograph showing tool

5.2 Segmentation and Prototyping instead be reimagined as an assembly of smaller, simpler parts? that underpinned the broader design ethos.

Figure 48. Segmentation of paraboloid using

advantages:

At this stage, parallel avenues of material experimentation were

rays is essential.

Figure 55. Pressure formed 3mm mirror

• light beams.

• are degraded.

• easily.

were designed for use with the sheet metal guillotine:

•

5.4 Press Brake Sheet Metal Forming

Figure 59. 18 big mirror aluminium segments

•

• sustainable material use.

Press Brake Forming and Calibration

was established, where approximately +2.8 degrees of additional

•

Figure 61. 18 small mirror segments bent

• Interpreting slight material variations and adapting pressure

• human hands.

Designing for Casting while housing the 24mm steel shaft used for panning movement. through prototyping stages to:

Figure 64. Pouring molten aluminium into

disparate materials — timber and metal — brought together through

5.6

Final Detailing and the Silent Craft ofAssembly

made for human hands. with a shoulder, a detail that prevented them from slipping during and typography.

Counterboring 2mm deep into

Figure 71.

Figure 72. Shoulder of nylon bushing to

automation. deliberate entanglement with the rhythms of the natural world.

intent. the modular design.

installation, the aluminium segments sagged slightly under their own after assembly.

6.6 Summary expressive design.

also sharpened an awareness of ‘how’ things are made — a kind of

labour that might otherwise remain invisible. the lessons learned through its making speak more broadly to to studio.

a broader truth: that making is not a supplement to design, but a a negotiation where the limits and possibilities of form emerge not only from intention but from dialogue with the material world.

onmaterialbehaviour,todevisingbespokeworkholdingsolutionsfor tool, and maker.