The Living Orb Glows Bright When the Sun Goes Down

Arduino Art & Sculpture Craft & Design Technology
The Living Orb Glows Bright When the Sun Goes Down
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Photos: Daric Gill

What do you get when you combine an old 1-½” thick desk surface with an Arduino and a set of LED light strips? If you’re Columbus, Ohio, artist Daric Gill, these elements combine to become “The Living Orb,” or his interpretation of a mini-treehouse. The microcontroller inside the orb controls the LED strips inside to slowly pulse off and on when the sun goes down, powered by a battery that charges via solar panels during the day.

After assembly, this orb was hung in a tree and became part of the “Find Me in the Park — It’s TREEmendous.” This program was put on by the Columbus (not Pawnee) Parks and Recreation Department to allow people to investigate city parks in a new way.

The orb took Gill about a month to construct, and was meant to be “outside [his] comfort zone” creation-wise. Among the various challenges, this was his first attempt at programming an Arduino. Also, the process for bending the wood into shape certainly took some experimentation, since both the form and the material bent were made from the thick desk mentioned earlier. As he puts it, “Creating ideas from scratch means there’s no real step-by-step guidebook to follow.”

Certainly most artists, Makers, engineers, and anyone else in “ground breaking” fields can relate to this!

When asked about inspiration for this project, Gill responded that “The orb shape and its materials were widely influenced by my other artwork, which finds harmonious connections between nature, the viewer, and machines. Using as many reclaimed components as possible was pretty key in the design process as well. ”

The results are quite nice, as seen in the video below.

YouTube player

For more information, check out Gill’s website and read more about the build process.

1 thought on “The Living Orb Glows Bright When the Sun Goes Down

  1. GOOGLE-HOURLY-JOBS-$98/h PAY says:

    $98/HOURLY SPECIAL REPORT!!!!……….After earning an average of 19952 Dollars monthly,I’m finally getting 98 Dollars an hour,just working 4-5 hours daily online….It’s time to take some action and you can join it too.It is simple,dedicated and easy way to get rich.Three weeks from now you will wishyou have started today – I promise!….HERE I STARTED-TAKE A LOOK AT…….ct…

    ➤➤➤➤ http://GoogleSpecialTeamJobsCloudOnnetCenter/$98hourlywork…. ⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛⚛

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

Jeremy is an engineer with 10 years experience at his full-time profession, and has a BSME from Clemson University. Outside of work he’s an avid maker and experimenter, building anything that comes into his mind!

View more articles by Jeremy S Cook

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK