Tags: LEDs
Creat-A-Con is Almost Here!
Posted: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 12:22
Creat-A-Con will be coming to Leicester on the 21st February at the Queens Building at De Montfort University. This free event aims to inspire young people in the key S.T.E.M. areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Interact Labs will be at the event demonstrating:
- The Edison robot and our robot arm
- The WaterColourBot drawing machine
- Scratch programming on the Raspberry Pi
- Our 3D printer
- DIY Virtual Reality headsets
Plus we will be making Arduino-powered interactive lights for use at the MyOptik Festival on the 28th February and testing the wireless video system we are making for the Image is the Servent event on the 27th February.
As if that isn't enough, we will also be showing the Creative Manifesto LED video wall.
Come and be creative with digital technology.
Creative Manifesto LED Video Wall
Posted: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:51
If you've visited the Lab over the past few months you will have noticed that its been somewhat 'busy'. The set-up for the Interact exhibition at LCB Depot in September was based there, same for Esther Rolinson's exhibition at Phoenix, the Affective Digital Histories video booth was there for a while and, most noticeably, Creative Manifesto have been using it to build their LED video screen.
Watching the Creative Manifesto project take shape has been fascinating. The group was successful in getting Arts Council funding to design and build a 24 panel video screen that could be use to showcase local artists' work. The screen was constructed using LED 'pixel strings', Fadecandy controllers and some cleverly modified plastic greenhouse panels. Members of Creative Manifesto have been using Interact Labs to make the screen - and also tapping in to our electronics and programming expertise.
The first outing of the screen was on Sunday night as part of the Light The Night festival in Leicester's Cultural Quarter. It was installed in the window of the Exchange Bar and looked amazing. The public was clearly impressed, with large crowds watching the animations on screen and taking photographs.
The screen will be installed at Exchange for a week or so, so there is plenty of time to go and have a look in the evenings. Pictures from the Light The Night event can be found here on Flickr. There is a video of the screen here on YouTube.
We will be publishing full construction details for the project on this website soon.
Esther Rolinson: Melt, Splinter & Thread
Posted: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:58
Interact Labs' Sean Clark has been one of a number of people helping Esther Rolinson to realise her lighting installations Splinter, Thread and Melt this year. It's been an interesting journey and we're happy to see that the work will be going on display at the Phoenix Cube later in the month. Two exhibitions, one containing and Splinter and Thread and the other containing Melt, will be running between 23th October 2014 and 7th January 2015 at Phoenix.
The exhibition press release reads, "Over the past year, with the support of Arts Council England and De Montfort University, she has been developing this body of work through modelling and drawing. She has worked with Sean Clark, Dave Everitt, Luke Woodbury and Graeme Stuart who have assisted with research into the technology and materials and the development of complex lighting behaviours."
Find out more on her website.
Interactive Lighting with Arduino
Posted: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:57
Our introduction to Arduino workshops have proven to be very popular this year. For those who want to develop their Arduino skills further, however, we are now looking to run a new Interactive Lighting with Arduino workshop at Interact Labs. This will show you how to wire up and program LED 'pixels' in order to create lighting installations and similar projects. The first workshop is on the 4th October. It's going to be popular, so book now.
Busy Week at Interact Labs
Posted: Fri, 16 May 2014 22:57
It's been busy at Interact Labs this week. A number of projects have started to come together and we've been testing various prototypes. Our work with Esther Rolinson has resulted in a test LED lighting rig that will be used to try out lighting sequences for her exhibition in October. We've had Paul Brown up for a visit to look at a prototype of a recreation of an electronic artwork of his from the 1970s. Plus we helped him install a software piece on a Raspberry Pi computer. They we finalised the technology for the Movers performance at Embrace later in the month. See our photo stream for some pictures.
