"Create an emergent interactive solar-powered sculpture”
Or, put more plainly: “a bunch of photovoltaic cells, batteries, LEDs, speakers and sensors lashed together in the South London Makerspace village”
We have: LEDs, microcontrollers, soldering irons, photovoltaic cells, timber, wire etc…and a three dimensional space to construct it. We’ll also give demonstrations and guidance of all the technical aspects: soldering, electrical connections and so forth…
You have: an hour, curiosity, willingness to get stuck in, maybe some interesting materials or ideas to add…all skill levels welcome. Previous experience of creating an an “emergent interactive solar-powered sculpture” absolutely not necessary
Then we’ll have: a one-off installation that develops over the course of EMF - perhaps radically different each night - created entirely by festival-goers
During the day it grows, during the night it glows!
So that’s the bold claim I’ve put out into the world…what do we need to make the above happen to the max?
We’ll set out a prominent area in our village for the installation, then we need to run some sessions for the crowd to build it…
I’ll bring
- raw photovoltaic cells
- flat soldering wire (tabbing wire)
- flux pens
- EVA for encapsulation
- 80W soldering irons, and stations
- heat guns
- some batteries LA most likely, maybe some Li-ion?
- LED strips - from the space
- battery charge controllers
- anything I can find that might form an interesting structure, such as heavy duty wire, coat hangers…
- some ESP 8266s?
What else can we bring? I think a few more sensors/actuators would be good, and of course this thing will get as complex as EMF collectively makes it…at its simplest it’s shape that lights up at night…
I’m happy to facilitate a few sessions (and would welcome support): I’m experienced with the DIY solar build process, and also in running sessions where it’s okay not to know what the final outcome will be – that’s absolutely part of the fun. Although we’ll probably have an overall theme or a provocation for each session. I’m looking forward to others running sessions, getting involved, stoking up interest. My experience with Microcontrollers is very rudimentary, but I don’t think we’re at a deficit in the village for those skills…Who’s up for it?