Mastery of technology need not be an end in itself, a showcase for mechanical sophistication. It can mean finding the point at which you push a medium to be its most expressive. And I suppose that’s why so many can admire the ongoing work of musician and media artist Robert Henke.
The lasers in ‘Fragile Territories’ are not the crude, awkward beams you probably know from kitschy planetarium shows. Instead, they form a spidery lace so exquisite, you could imagine them as being part of something crackling with organic life – or the workings of a fanciful undersea electro-luminescent metropolis. Henke’s score, too, crackles at the edge of being, the foreground sound as tightly focused as the lasers, against a dark, warm wash that breathes beneath. That’s a direct analog for the visuals, which cast a slow-moving shadow against these white beams.
It looks brilliant in the documentation, but I know seeing lasers in person is another experience entirely. The work travels from Nantes, France next to EMPAC in New York state.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
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Robert Henke is a legend, and has contributed a lot to what is great. He’s involved in Monolake, the legendary Chain Reaction label of Berlin techno sound, DIN, he made Ableton Live etc.
Robert Henke is a legend, and has contributed a lot to what is great. He’s involved in Monolake, the legendary Chain Reaction label of Berlin techno sound, DIN, he made Ableton Live etc.