Raspberry Pi integrated into the world of art. I hadn’t come across much of this before, and I like it a lot. As a self-proclaimed ‘artist of stuff’, it’s always exciting to see something arty that calls to the maker inside. With Glaciers, NYC-based Zach Gage has achieved exactly that.
Glaciers was an art instillation that, like the landforms from which it takes its name, slowly developed over time. I say ‘was’, but with each of its constituent pieces still running and a majority already sold, Glaciers continues indefinitely. Using forty Raspberry Pis attached to forty plainly presented Adafruit e-ink screens, Gage used Google Search’s auto-complete function to create poetry.
We’ve all noticed occasional funny or poignant results of the way Google tries to complete your search query for you based on the vast amount of data that passes through its search engine daily. Gage has programmed the Raspberry Pis to select the top three suggestions that follow various chosen phrases and display them on the screens. The results are striking, often moving, and usually something that most people would acknowledge as poetry, or at least poetic.
The screens refresh daily as the Pis check Google for changes and update accordingly. For some search phrases, the autocompletions can change daily; for others, it could take years. A poem you’ve had upon your wall for months on end could suddenly change unexpectedly, updating to reflect the evolving trends of user queries on the internet.
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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.
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