Take a Virtual Walk through the Luminous Garden

Take a Virtual Walk
Through the
Luminous Garden
As Experienced
At Electric Sky
June 2016
Photo by Leo Spizzirri

An art and tech weekend “campathon”
-- an artists’ retreat and hackathon
A mix of artists, technologists, and makers
In the woods, on the river, collaborating
Learn more at http://ElectricSkyArtCamp.com
About Electric Sky

 This year we organized our creative
efforts around a group installation
called “The Luminous Garden”
 Our basic design framework was to
provide an overarching experience
“taking a walk in an otherworldy
garden arboretum”
 We then recruited others to take on
elements of the installation while also
participating in the larger
collaboration
About the Luminous Garden

 Event production and creative lead: Shelly
Farnham
 Design framework, infrastructure, and lighting:
The art group Recreational Light and Magic (A Totally
Legit LLC), including Jeff Larson, Shelly Farnham,
Greg Larson, April Denton
 Kitchen and group meal: Bevin Keely and Andy
Tomacelli
 Opening night bar and snacks: Indira Schlag
 Workshops: David Hull, Carey Christie, Jeremy
Kayes
 Interpretive Signs and Narrative: Jeremy Kayes
and Mary Hodder
 Photography: Leo Spizziri, Jole Sack
 Luminous Garden participants!
Special Thanks
Made possible through the
support of:

For those who could not attend
Electric Sky in 2016, we created
this “Virtual Walk” based on all the
photos we took.
…..enjoy!

The Luminous Garden
Take a walk through an otherworldly garden biosphere
with luminous flora and fauna.
Imagine you have landed as tourists on an alien world, in
an immersive extraterrestrial landscape.
As the sun sets on an interstellar, magically luminous
garden, you will experience nature reconceived – with
unpredictable flora, fauna, and architectural oddities that
confound your earth-bound notions of nature.

Along your walk, the
path is lit with colors.
Photo by Shelly Farnham

Illuminated interpretive signs are
placed to tell you about what you
are seeing.
Let’s get started!
Photo by Jole Sack

The Portal
Jeff Larson, Shelly Farnham,
and their Recreational Light
and Magic crew
The entry gate to the
Luminous Garden. This
trans- dimensional gateway
will accelerate your
molecules to seven times the
speed of light. If you are
holding a beverage, maintain
a firm grasp.

More About the Portal
Jeff Larson, Shelly Farnham, and
their art group Recreational Light and
Magic (a Totally Legit LLC)
constructed the garden entry gate —
the Portal — with responsive lighting
that fluctuated to indicate the entry
and exit of participants, and the
number of people who are inside the
garden. The goal was to help create
the experience of walking into an
otherworldly, immersive environment.
Materials include wood, fabric,
projector, and controllable RGB
lights.

Smooth Jazz
Fountain
Jennifer Welge and Jencat
Plantlife of the Slatook Nebula is
designed to pollinate through
music. The relaxing sounds of
water and Smooth Jazz
encourage hominids
to dance from blossom to
blossom.

More About the Smooth Jazz Fountain
Materials include a trombone, a fountain, lighting,
and smooth jazz.

AquaFleur
Christopher Overstreet
Abbey Enson
Kolibri Enson-Overstreet
Kevin Nortness
Christina Jones
These aquatic flowers interact
with hominid children on hot days
of the firy planet Cinderchar IV.
Pressing the mushroom caps will
expel jets of water, but only the
most clever know which bloom
will squirt!

More About AquaFleur
Materials include fabric,
rope light, water.
Photo by Jole Sack

You see on your walk,
the trees themselves
are works of art.
Photo by Jole Sack

Lit orbs along the path guide the way
through the trees towards the river
Photo by Jole Sack

Sensor Mote
Swarm
Shelly Farnham & Greg
Larson
A swarm of geometric,
alien critters (“motes”) respond in
lighting and sound to your
presence. See if you can’t teach
them to dance.
Photo by Shely Farnham

More About the Sensor
Mote Swarm
The swarm included eight
units, or “motes”, that
communicated color state
information to each other
through wireless radio
transceivers.
Materials include vinyl,
vellum, microcontrollers,
radio transceivers, and
neopixel RGB controllable
lights.
Photo by Jole Sack

Polyp
Andy Tomacelli and Luke
Swart
The sentient, gelatinous flora of
planet Nort definitely
does not speak, but in the
unlikely event that it does, don’t
believe anything it tells you. It’s ill
adviced to argue with it, as it is
known to place ideas in your
head.

More About the Polyp
Materials include thermal
plastic and found objects.

Pixel River Rocks
Ben Flaster
Alien seeds landed in the river
10,000 years ago, where they
slowly grew into glowing rocks
calibrated by the river flow,
signaling to other seeds still in
space.

More About Pixel River Rocks
River rocks as LEDS provide a
visual plot of the intensity of the
river. A motor attached to a fan
powered by the river generates a
voltage that causes the LED to
illuminate depending on speed of
the current.
Materials include LEDs made from
scratch, resin, fans.

Now the path turns,
taking you away from
the river and back up
into the trees.

Lighter than Air
Briar Bates
This plant uses rings of lights
to lure hominids to relax in it’s
comforting chair-like shape
so it can resequence their
DNA for pollination of it’s
species.

More About
Lighter than Air
Materials include
acrylic plastic and
LEDs.

Kids are Such
Pests
Carey Christie, Wilder
Christie, Jeff Larson, and
Workshop Pests
Don’t bug me!!! They appeared
to be just kids in costume but
actually they morphed into
insects and bugs floating around
in and out of the flora. Kids who
can never return to their human
state.
Photo by Jole Sack

See video at:
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AGPhFpuWAKGrfN0&id=C3A564E995D34886%21374&cid=C3A564E995D34886

More About the “Kids
are Such Pests”
While the grown ups
were building an art
garden, through a
workshop the kids
created a bunch of
garden pests through
simple technologies
and costumes. They
then “infected” the
garden, and wrapped
up their projects by
creating movies.
Photo by Jole Sack

Bamboo Lanterns
Lea Willingham
Come inside this traditional
Japanese bamboo festival of
lanterns – where the forest
spirits glow, turning into
fairies casting spells on the
insects in the forest.
Photo by Jole Sack

Photo by Jole SackPhoto by Leo Spizzirri

More About
Bamboo Lanterns
Materials include
bamboo and LEDs.

Now the path takes
you back up hill into
the kitchen. You stop
for a drink “the Astral
Confection” before
continuing your garden
walk.

Sunflower of
Symmetry
Bryan Ressler
The seeds of the sunflower
listen quietly and respond
with light patterns. The
patterns are used to
manipulate mammilian
minds.
Photo by Jole Sack

More About the
Sunflower of
Symmetry
The middle area is
comprised of a
circular disc of
surface-mounted
LEDs behind a
diffuser, surrounded
by handmade LDPE
flower petals. A
hidden computer
projects symmetric
animations on the
sunflower that
respond to the
proximity presence
of the viewer.

Popup Arcade
Seth Vincent, Luke Swart,
and Christina Montilla
Technology and nature merged
on the planet Yaphtorglam.
These organic arcade machines
connect young hominids to the
pollination process. Luminous
auditory moments breathe
through the lush, mysterious
arboretum.

More About the
Popup Arcade
This project explores
the incongruity of
familiar technologies
in new environments.
People “play” the
game by looking at
the screen, which
causes the tree to
grow.
Materials include
Google notebooks,
bamboo and LEDs.
Photo by Jole Sack

Anemone Tentacle
David Hull
A creature at the edge of the
sea, anchored in tidal pools
and under docks. More plant
than animal, it recoils and
changes color at your curious
and invasive touch. It may
nibble your finger, or inject you
with nanobots of tetrodotoxin.
Considered mostly safe.
Photo by Jole Sack

More About
Anemone Tentacle
This interactive
kinetic sculpture
emulates the arms of
sea Anemone, with
large tentacles that
react to the proximity
of a viewer by curling
and changing color.
Materials include thin
flexible steel
armatures, a
translucent “skin”
material, motors,
LED lights, and
electronic sensors.

Awesome
Blossom
Betsy Morris
These cave dwelling flowers are
found on all the planets
in the Neethroo system. Found
on the walls of caves and dark
moons, the lights of these
luminous flowers are known to
hypnotically compel mammals to
yodel.

More About the
Awesome Blossom
Materials include
fabric, LEDS.

Thunderhead
Nicole Kistler
Josh Lind
“They watched in silence, and
with them all the thousands in the
streets and the towers of
Diaspar, until the last cloud
slowly faded from sight, sucked
dry by the hot, parched air of the
unending deserts.”
~ Arthur C. Clarke, Against the
Fall of Night
Photo by Jole Sack

More About
Thunderhead
An artificial cloud
made with a thunder
and lightning-like
episodes created
within the cloud.
Materials include
recycled plastic, LED
lights, speakers.

Interactive
Beanstalk
Joel Walters
The drum-like seed pods of
this beanstalk are presented to
invite humanoids to nurture the
beanstalk with percussion. Drum
on the pods to make the
beanstalk grow.
Photo by Jole Sack

More About the
Interactive
Beanstalk
The beanstalk grew
as people banged on
the drum. Materials
include parachute
fabric, EL wire, yoga
balls, motor, and.

Wind Tunnel
Jole Sack
A section of a arboreal feed tube
from the vine hives of planet
Wobnok. Objects can hover in
the kinetic transport zone. Mostly
safe.
Photo by Jole Sack

More About the
Wind Tunnel
Created to illustrate
properties of various
objects in the wind.
People could insert
whatever object they
chose. Materials
included wood,
acrylic tube, fan.
Photo by Jole Sack

The path takes a final turn through the
field, passing by some of the biggest
projects in the garden.

Solar Sunflower
Bee Wilkerson
& Ron Ellington
This very dangerous specimen is
the master sunflower controlling
all the other sunflowers. The solar
petals follow the sun, but can be
distracted by delicious small
humans. Observe from a distance.
Photo by Shell Farnham

More About the
Solar Sunflower
A 500 Watt solar
generator in the form
of a flower with
actuated petals
follows the sun.
Power generated
during the day lights
the flower at night.
Materials include
acrylic, arduinos,
actuators, servos,
RGB controllable
lights.
Photo by Shelly Farnnham

Square of Air
Oxogenus Mop
Air transforms into carbon
dioxide with each breath you
take, but also this square of
carbon dioxide transforms into air
by each tree in the forest.

More About the
Square of Air
Designed to convey
that an art piece is
as much in the
concept as in the
material.
Materials include air.

Chameliobus
Shelly Farnham
& Greg Larson
This alien creature forms a
symbiotic relationship with
humanoid travelers. Since
it is hunted by predators
eager to devour the delicious
passengers, it resonates with
the environments
it traverses, altering its skin to
blend in with its environment.

More About
Chameliobus
Painting based in
images taken in the
area.
Materials include
house paint, bus.

You are Here
Sarah Fansler Lavin
A celestial coordinate system
using laser light levels. The
lasers are placed on the x
and y axis creating a grouping of
stars or constellations mimicking
the night sky. One can see the
planets and the milky way. The
constellations will serve as a map
for the “tourists just landing in the
extraterrestrial world”.

More About
You are Here
The grouping of lasers
and stars mimic
constellations in the
night sky.
Materials include Black
and Decker laser light
levels, LED lights,
plywood sign.

Now you have reached the
end of your walk in the
Luminous Garden! Thanks
for joining us.
Continue to see more photos
from Electric Sky 2016.

Forest

Meeting

Coordinating

Making

Making a Mess

Projects in Progress

More Making
Photo by Shelly FarnhamPhoto by Shelly Farnham

Electronics

Random Projects

Projecting All Night

Wearable Arduinos

2D Cutters

Kids are Such Pests

Cartooning

CNC Router

Introductions and
Coordinating Meeting

Group
Activities

Group Meal
Photo by Joel Walters

Group Meal

Opening
Night Party

Collaboration

Solar Sunflower

Polyp
Photo by Leo SpizzirriPhoto by Leo Spizzirri

Lighter than Air

The Portal

Thunderhead

AquaFleur

Portal Sensor Mote Swarm
Photo by Leo SpizzirriPhoto by Leo Spizzirri

Popup Arcade Lighter than Air
Photo by Leo SpizzirriPhoto by Shelly Farnham

Not much time for relaxing!

Take a Virtual Walk through the Luminous Garden

Take a Virtual Walk through the Luminous Garden

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