Enlighted Rings 4

Soldered metal rings, sheer black diffusing layer
~140 RGB LED pixels, individually addressable
Custom control hardware and software
22" x 22" x 4" thick

2022

This piece is round, but arches out in the center in a shallow convex dome shape. The outermost layer is made of silver-colored soldered metal rings, and provides most of the structure. The rings are slightly different sizes, and fill in the dome with a 5-way repeating pattern, suggestive of a sea urchin or a starfish. The back panel is covered in black fabric.

The RGB LED pixels are mounted behind the rings, with one LED near the center of each ring. A layer of black organza and diffusing material lies above the LEDs but behind the steel rings, to partially smooth out the hot spots. Some diffused light is also visible through the negative space between rings.

The LEDs are animated in a variety of hypnotic patterns. By default, it will cycle between these patterns when it is first powered up. It can also be set to play one of the patterns continuously, with a built-in mode switch on the back panel. This piece can also be controlled wirelessly with the Enlighted iOS BLE App.

The first pattern is color-coded with a sequence of blue, white, and red hues to show the changes in global mean temperature from 1850 to the present day, including the rapid warming of the late twentieth century.

UPDATE: This piece was selected for the 2nd Annual Surfing Madonna Art Show, opening in October 2022.

video

The video below starts with a demonstration of some of the sound reactive patterns (they are being changed remotely via my iOS App). The middle portion shows some of the patterns that do not react to sound, and the last 45 seconds shows the mode with colors defined by the global temperature sequence described above.