Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde has created a "digital campfire" out of 700 small crystalline rocks containing LEDs that light up when people interact with them.
[partner id="wireduk"]Each rock within the piece, called Crystal, is made out of a unique salt which grows in perfect geometric shapes around two LEDs. These are wirelessly charged via a power mat on the ground. The project's interactivity is proximity-based. In their dormant state, the crystals appear to "breathe" light, slowly lighting up and then dimming; when visitors start to move and interact with them, their lighting behavior changes. At times the lights will flutter quickly as if they are excited, while at other times they will be fairly static or bored. The behavior is dictated by small pressure sensors in the power mat that the crystals sit on. Depending on how many people are interacting the the crystals (and therefore the mat), more pressure will be detected. This information is then relayed to a piece of software that alters the behavior of the lights.
Roosegaarde told Wired that the biggest challenge was "to make environments which are playful, to make something you would consider as 'Lego from Mars,' something people would use to share stories… plus a twelve month R&D process to make it safe and super smooth."
The piece has already been shown at EYE Museum in Amsterdam and Strijp-Sin Eindhoven. A permanent version of the light installation will be housed at an old Philips factory in The Netherlands at the end of 2013.
CRYSTAL by Studio Roosegaarde from Daan Roosegaarde on Vimeo.
