by Emily Sollecito
My biggest idea is to make a large-scale “Lite Brite” board and recreate a famous piece of artwork relating to light. As of right now, I think a spin on “Starry Night” by Van Gogh would be visually most interesting and would have great contrast. I chose this idea because I was thinking back to the earliest memories I have of being amazed by light. These memories largely revolved around playing with a Lite Brite for hours.
The lite brite board is simply a peg board with a backlight, and the holes can be filled with transparent colored pegs. When the backlight is turned on, the light takes on the color of the pegs and the image or design can be seen. Because I would want my artwork to be bigger than a 12”x12” square, I would be designing the board from scratch. I will do this by using the laser cutter in Unity or Innovation Studies to cut a sheet of plywood or polycarbonate. I then will either purchase different lightbulbs or “pegs” and get to designing. My backlight will be a series of LED strips arranged on another board to provide even light across the big surface.
I still am unsure about a “theme” or overall “message” my artwork would describe besides just relating to my enjoyment with this toy as a kid. A preliminary idea I have is to make the artwork 3D in some way compared to just the flat sheet. I would either do this by designing a board that had multiple sides, or get creative with some of the “pegs” and use other objects or materials.
Any photo I use I will reduce the resolution to see the main color in each section and work from there.
Questions:
Does anyone have experience with the laser cutter? If so do you foresee any issues id have with designing a peg orientation and having the laser cutter cut the peg holes?
What other materials or objects could I use to cover/fill the holes to add a different layer of texture?
This idea brings back so much nostalgia and I think that it is such a fun idea. I have experience using a laser cutter and I don’t think that there would be any issues using a laser cutter to cut the holes. It might take a little time to get the design laid out, but once it’s done, the laser cutter shouldn’t have too many issues. In terms of filling the hole, I am always a fan of acrylic although it can be a bit expensive. Tissue paper or gels might also be a fun way to incorporate color and texture into the piece. Overall, I don’t think you can go wrong. Pixel art is such a fun medium and I am excited to see how it turns out.
So traditional light bricks are a really cool toy, and I think your project has the potential to reach those heights, however they had major one draw back, and that was the fact that the light the toy used was really static. Image a light brick set up, with a twinkling night sky, that would be really cool and it could complement your 3D base plate ideas, which are already very neat.
Oh also, you can probably use some sort of mesh screen to cover up the holes, maybe even a felt layer on top, that would be the simplest way to do it. The harder way would be to actuate the holes themselves with like a simple mechanism that once a peg is pushed into place, a sort of stopper would move, out of the light sources’ path, thus allowing it to shine only in that specific spot.
First off I have to say I love starry night and your idea is awesome. Would the backlight only shine if the pegs are in, or would it shine all the time? I am unfortunately not familiar with laser cutting, so I can’t give any advice on that. A complicated design to fill empty pegs and hold pegs in place would be to have a spring with a cover in each peg hole. When a peg is pushed in it can lock in (think having a nub that will twist into place), and when removed the spring will extend again and the cover will block the hole.
Great idea! I was also have many fond memories of Lite Brites and think that the starry night is a fantastic choice for a subject. The only suggestion I have for the laser cutter is that it is not necessarily exact, and you have to adjust the size of cuts to account for it cutting off more than intended. This is usually done by making a standard test piece and adjusting, but you can find more online
I love the idea! I’ve used the laser cutter quite a bit and don’t see any big issues, but I would do a test cut with 1 hole to ensure your pegs fit properly. A possibility for adding the 3D aspect that wouldn’t add tons of complexity is to use pegs that are all the same shape, but different lengths giving the piece depth.