TEDxPENN Pillars
Illuminating the stage with insight and bright light.
For the TEDxPENN installation, we created two columns of 36 infinity mirrors designed to compliment the speakers, mesmerize the audience and react to applause. We used wifi-enabled microcontrollers to remotely change animations throughout the event. These installations set the stage for the University of Pennsylvania’s 2018 TEDx event.
Pillars in Sight
The goal was to set a backdrop that would both inspire and compliment the ideas presented from the speakers for an audience of over 1000. The theme of this particular talk was “Insight” which set the cornerstone for inspiring our pillars. We tackled this project from two perspectives: 1) To ensure the pillars were literally in sight to every seat in the auditorium and 2) to incorporate animated behaviors that was reactive and complimentary to the room, but was not distracting the the speaker or audience.
And our reasoning for the infinity mirrors? Insights are derived from a depth of exploration and synthesis of a topic which we believed was perfectly executed in the optical illusion of depth in a 2D mirror.
In their final form they slowly transitioned through different color palettes at a rate of 1 color per minute to ensure constant change throughout the 15 min speeches and not draw too much attention from the speaker. At the end of each talk, we activated different rapid animations to mimic the applause of the audience before the next speaker began. Each animation we controlled remotely through the MCU’s wifi chip.
This project was built in collaboration with product engineer and programmer, James Sannino.