Category: Artistic Collaborations

As homage to the Mayan god of wind, storm, and fire, Hurakan, is a 40′ tall sculpture that has tamed a tornado of blazing propane. An array of digitally controlled solenoids triggered the propane bursts and injected firework powders, changing the color of the flame.

The control station had e-stop safety switch as well as manual control over the propane. Vintage arcade buttons were wires to control the various solenoids.

In remote-control mode, and iPad could remotely control the solenoids (while an operator was still at the safety station) thus allowing the crowd to interact with the sculpture at the edge of the safety perimeter.

The iPad application was written by Pat Barry and was fully functional with JoeJoe Martin’s solenoid circuitry just two weeks after the iPad was originally released to the public.

The Giant Boombox by Brass Tax was a 30′ long by 12′ tall structure that housed a massive sound system at Burning Man 2009.

The facade of the boombox had real-time servo-driven VU meters, real-time EQ lights, DMX driven mood-lighting, and a custom RFID entry system for the DJ booth and green room.

A collective of artists and fabricators from Austin, Texas wanted to create a highly interactive swing set. JoeJoe Martin created a custom PCB with an accelerometer, a wireless transceiver, and several LEDs. A small battery pack would provide motion reactive light throughout the evening. The swing set boards could also be controlled by a DMX lighting board, by way of a MaxMSP patch.

This custom technology was created for an automated jug-band instrument that was never finished by the artists.

An array of infrared LEDs and detectors were used to generate MIDI signals. Another circuit board then translated these MIDI notes into triggers for relays/solenoids for a blast of compressed air.

As part of the Red Bull Ascension event on the rooftop of the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, NY, LumiGeek was asked to collaborate with AKAirways and Leo Villareal to make their sculpture interactive with event participants.

An array of ultrasonic range sensors were installed on the wall below each column of pixels. The range finder measurements, coupled with audio from a microphone, were used to create an interactive layer over the colors and patterns.

The concept of fusing robot and botany led Jill Coffin to collaborate with John Taylor and Daniel Bauen to create Breeze.

A mature Japanese Maple tree was carefully wired with monofilament down to nitinol (nickel titanium) wires to create silent motion.

A 360-camera hidden in a lantern suspended over the tree was used to detect motion of observers. Computer vision algorithms were used to trigger relays to actuate the the various branches near the motion in the room.

The tree appeared to reach out to people passing by.

As homage to the Mayan god of lightning, Cauac stands claim to being the largest pair of Tesla Coils in existence.

At over 15′ tall and 30′ apart, Syd Klinge has mastered the art of lighting the air ablaze with arcs of man-made lightning.

For several years, one of which included a tour through Australia, the coils had a cluster of custom LED lights in the star-points around their bases.

The EMF collapse as the coils turned on or off would reset the circuit boards, causing a coordinated blink as the lightning disappeared.

As an Atlanta-based blacksmith, Jeffrey Loy has been producing beautiful sculptures with LED lighting for over a decade. In 2003 he began collaborating with LumiGeek co-founder Joe Martin to bring dynamic solar powered LED lighting to his creations.

Together they produced pieces that lit the Atlanta skyline during the then-nascent West End arts scene, appeared in group shows in Richmond, Virginia and Austin, Texas, and helped celebrate the opening of the monumental Atlanta Greenway project. These pieces were a striking combination of old-world blacksmith techniques combined with cutting edge LED architectural lighting and control systems, with a focus on seamlessly blending technology and craftsmanship into a single vision.

Jeffry and JoeJoe later had an interactive installation piece entitled “Pupula Arboretum” in the curated Activating Spaces show in the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art in Jacksonville, Florida.