The antique mechanical sculptures produce hyper-colorful projections radiating with light. With a professional career spanning nearly four decades, Danish artist Thomas Wilfred established himself as a light art visionary in the early 20th century by creating colorful, moving projections that mimicked natural phenomena. He pioneered the art of lighting design, using a technique known as “lumia.” His artistry and experimentation with color elevated his projection pieces to a new artistic practice, while his iconic pieces did not fall prey to derivation, as Wilfred once conceded he had “no pet color… the whole spectrum is my favorite.”
Wilfred’s influence traces to an age before the popularization of the television set, and Yale University has assembled a striking collection of the artist’s work in its namesake art gallery. His ever-evolving oeuvre of works, some considered breakthroughs, includes Lumia Suite, Opus 158, which utilizes projector screens and reflector units to enclose the phenomenon of aurora borealis within the walls of a gallery. The piece was commissioned for MoMA in 1963 and remained at the museum for 16 years. Nearly four decades later, the piece is once again delighting museumgoers within the exhibit Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light. The show’s catalogue features a foreword by another contemporary light artist, James Turrell.
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
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 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: The latest on Raspberry Pi RP2350-E9, Bluetooth 6, 4,000 Stars and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey