Manufacturers have always been at the forefront of new technology, both as inventors and innovators. From their beginnings in the early 20. While some manufacturers are fascinated by their energy-saving capacities, others are delighted by the beautiful lights and their integration with other types of electronics. At Maker Faire Bay Area, we celebrate the makers and their projects that dive deep into LED technology and its creative applications in the Dark Room – which of course shows it to its best effect(s). Come to the dark side at Mare Island on September 25 to 27 and see what makers do with light. Here’s a sneak peek.
Our cover image (above) Imaginary Lepidoptera by Grant Patterson, is an interactive light sculpture inspired by the endangered migratory monarch butterfly. Patterson, a Stanford-trained computer scientist with decades of experience in hardware, software and IoT systems, uses 570 full-color LEDs to make voice and light. To activate it, participants speak into a vintage microphone. An LLM generates code on the fly, translating their voices into ever-changing light patterns. The piece makes AI-generated “code slop” visible – and lets anyone create software instantly, no programming experience required. The catch (which is of particular interest to the technologists in the room): without seeing the code, you can’t really understand, debug, or change what you’ve done.
This year, many Dark Room exhibits have a musical component such as via integrated hardware devices or PCBs (printed circuit boards) designed to synchronize visual lighting effects with audio signals, music or MIDI inputs. One such project, Night canopyis a room-sized musical instrument with hanging strings that respond to touch with sound made by Bay Area maker, DJ, and software engineer Jenia Varavva. Go inside, wash a strand, and hear a loop or short sound with the music. Fluorescent strands glow under UV light under a reflective ceiling, inviting people to play together.
Two other pieces that explore the interplay between light and sound and are designed for experimentation are in Agents VJ System and a piece designed to create interplay between light and sound on theater sets.
Vrch.io is a small art-tech studio building real-time generative AI systems that turn sound, gesture and emotion into an immersive spatial experience. Founded by an architectural computational artist and an AI engineer, they believe that latent space is the new medium and new (or old) ways of control and interaction are worth exploring.
Chromol is an art piece created by Bay Area artist Sydney Parcell for the play “Sunday in the Park with George” presented by Shotgun Players Theater in Berkeley. This light art piece rotates and casts light and shadows in the space around it, and is fully controllable with DMX, which allowed the sound and light designer to collaborate with the art piece.
Another version of light and sound interaction comes in the form of a giant 9 ‘Lüster – D’ Morphoresonator. Step up to a chandelier that glows in a dark room humming with music—luminous shapes hand-sculpted from cellophane and packing tape over light, proof that living light doesn’t have to wait for a meltdown. Make a sound – knock, hum, speak, play – and it answers you: the light changes, and the music takes your sound and plays it back changed. That is the MorphoResonator, a sculptural light instrument fused with a live generative music system.
Dynamandala is an immersive, participatory light and sound installation that transforms audience input into evolving visual patterns and spatial sound in real time. Through a customized sculptural controller, visitors become active collaborators, shaping a living audiovisual environment through play, movement and exploration. Combining creative coding, real-time 3D technology, and sensory immersion, DynaMandala explores the relationship between human input, perception, and shared experience. Every interaction creates a unique moment
A host of makers, many participants in the city’s renowned winter light art festival travel down from Portland, Oregon with new and souped-up pieces to display. Among them are Oscillara, Vivarium, and Samyra Drift of Twisty Mauricethe creative partnership of Misty Post and Therese Gietler (and much guidance from Andy Batt).
Oscillate: This year with an interactive console: place your hands near or inside the smaller console and see how the movement comes out in the larger illuminated piece in real time.
Samyra Operations: Sam is a four-foot octopus made of LEDs and folded paper, drifting between starfish and urchin shapes that seem to breathe with her. Look at her chromatophores long enough and you start to notice how many little pieces of paper it took to make her glow like this.
Like many of the other Dark Room exhibits, Lightly tripled is interactive. Created by Johan Fredrik Källman, a Swedish light artist who works at the intersection of art, science and public interaction, this light installation transforms the science of optics and the natural phenomena of light, reflection, refraction and color into a hands-on experience for visitors of all ages. In the center is a rotatable plate embedded with glass prisms illuminated by a beam of white light. By rotating the plate and rearranging the prisms, participants actively shape how light refracts, reflects and disperses into vivid spectrums of color.
For those who didn’t make it, some really wonderful pieces of art were built for Burning Man, an event that helped pioneer both LED-rich sculpture and mobile installations like “art cars” and deeply encouraged and demonstrated the fascination and joy of participatory and interactive pieces of art.
Although there are mobile exhibits that roam the Mare Island Esplanade, outside the parade lives a special beauty in the Dark Room. Come visit Sepia Lux, The Cuttlefish Art Car and his friend Flash the Tortoise. The schnitzel is a 35 foot long animatronic inflatable lighted schnitzel. Flash the turtle is a similarly illuminated mobile turtle made with custom HDPE panels. Come play the lights using a piano or drum set in the dark room!
Come to Mare Island the building 101 AKA the Maker Faire Bay Area Dark Room September 25th through 27th and you will not leave disappointed. Improvements in LED technology, especially sequenced, dynamic color change over a piece and through interaction has really made it possible for light to travel fantastically in real time.
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