Building light art

Our first collaboration

Two weeks before heading to Tahoe with our friends for a weekend, we decided we wanted to contribute something special to the group in the form of some constructed LEDs. 👀 🙆🏻

We started off by looking at pictures of the cabin we were renting out. How could we add to the environment and enhance the space with lights? This being a large room and group of people (almost twenty of our friends!), we wanted the piece to be immersive.

With a rough concept in mind, we began to form a moodboard.

Left: Early sketches and lo-fi foamcore prototyping. R: Moodboard and inspiration

As we tried to build off the ideas we had looking at the moodboard we had built, we started thinking about the technical aspects pretty quickly.

Thinking of a few ideas for the form, we went through each option and weighed out what the pros and cons would be:

• How much would it cost ($$$)?
• What would be the structure and how would it fit into the environment? Would it be possible to hang things from the ceiling or rafters? We knew our friends were DJing, could it be made as a backdrop for the DJ booth? Would it be one large piece or several pieces placed throughout the room?
• How complex was this going to be to build? We only had two weeks! How much wiring would the project require? This is a very time-consuming process!
• What kind of light patterns would the form inspire?
• What materials would be durable enough to last? Does it need to be lightweight? How many LEDs and wiring is required?

Choosing the right material for this required some trial and error. We experimented with several matboard thicknesses and made cutouts of various widths, ensuring that the paper wasn’t too thick to just break when bended but also thick enough to be rigid. We liked the luminous quality that the triangles produced when lit up, and how the LEDs weren’t shining directly outward to the viewer like our last LED project.

At first we were planning to have the small triangle sitting inside the larger one, but we didn’t like the idea of the small triangle’s folded-up sides exposed to the viewer. That’s when we realized a hole could be cut in the large triangle, layering the small triangle behind it.

We decided to design a frame for the whole piece. We took inspiration from Sierpinski’s triangle for the configuration of all the triangles.

After creating the frame came the wiring of the LED strips. There was some trial and error that came into play here; we tested out strips that were conducive to using connectors and others that were more suited for soldering.

L: Small triangle layer, R: Large triangle layer

Retrospective

Some things to improve on for the future:

• Technique for staining wood
• Improve electrical wiring, find ways to reduce soldering time
• A more eloquent solution for the computer (which is now bulky and attached to the backside)
• Continue exploring material options

It wasn’t quite immersive on the scale that I was dreaming big on, but considering the timeframe and resources we had on hand, the lights worked well in contributing to the overall atmosphere and vibe of the living room, especially at night during the dance party!

Continue to Part 2: Building Content Creation Software