Art through Technology - Making Future Magic

By Mollie Cohen

Light photography began in the early 1900s with Frank Gilberth. This man and his wife were able to track the motion of manufacture workers by using small lights and the open shutter of a camera. Eventually, people would latch onto this idea and begin to light paint.

This 'light painting' was a method of using light and a low shutter speed to literally draw with light. Light painting has been around since the 1940s and with all of the new technology today it has been adapted and changed over time.

Probably the most prolific of  modern light painters would be the group known as Making Future Magic. During May, June, and July of 2012 this group worked with another group called BERG. BERG is a design consultancy based in London that helps companies research and develop their technologies and strategy. Together the two teams created two full stop-motion films made completely of light painting.

However, unlike the Gilberths who used tiny flames to track manufacture workers, Making Future Magic developed their own way to light paint by using an iPad. The team also developed the software they are using to create their paintings and stop motion films.

Making Future Magic puts everything it wishes to turn into a light painting through an entire animation and runs through it what they jokingly call 'the CAT scan'. It's exactly what it sounds like: Each block or letter is broken up into a single line.

After going through the process of dealing with the animation itself, the 'CAT scan' is then transferred to an iPad. With a camera and tripod in hand, the team at Making Future Magic set off to find the sets for their pictures. Once they are ready, they use long camera exposures to record the motion in space to produce their 3-D light forms.

While light painting has been around for years, this new method to approaching it opens up a world of possibilities. The team has inspired several groups to also pursue light painting with different mediums and perhaps even sparked a new found interest in a relatively new art style.