The Imagination Machine Finds a Home in the Schumacher Gallery

A few years ago, artist Daric Gill built an interactive art installation called The Imagination Machine that was housed at the Columbus Museum of Art. As is always the case, that museum updated their displays and rotated The Imagination Machine out. But this beautiful sculpture deserves to be seen, so Gill recently rebuilt the art piece and The Imagination Machine, Version 2 is now installed in the Schumacher Gallery at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

At first glance, The Imagination Machine, Version 2 looks a lot like its predecessor. It is an airplane wing lined with glowing panels. But the internal hardware and its operation are quite different. The original lit up according to the position of the International Space Station using data pulled from NASA. This new version is motion-activated and illuminates according to the presence of people. It cycles through different colors, with a special animation at set intervals. It goes through 500 cycles before repeating, so visitors receive a unique experience.

That change was partially a matter of necessity, as The Imagination Machine, Version 2 had to work offline and couldn't pull data from remote servers. That forced Gill to take a new creative approach and this was the result.

The light comes from strips of RGB LEDs controlled by a pair of Adafruit Feather M4 Express development boards. Those looks for motion through four different PIR sensors. There are a lot of LEDs here, so Gill selected a large power supply. That power comes in through a relay and a fuse box, which help to keep everything safe.

Not only is The Imagination Machine, Version 2 stunning, it is also a great example of an artist updating their work to keep it relevant.