2002 – LED Cubes

While volumetric displays have a long history dating back from the 1910s and are still an active topic of research, the improvement and democratization of LED technology made it possible for anyone to build low-resolution volumetric displays by arranging many LEDs in a 3D matrix. Today, hundreds of video tutorials and demos of LED cubes can be found on YouTube (the left image is from a 2021 tutorial). Perhaps one of the earliest people to come up with the idea was artist Todd Holoubek, who built a LED cube back in 2002 (right image). In an email, he tells us: The led cube was a collaboration between James Clar, Cindy Jeffers, Danielle Lee, and myself. It was a final project in the spring 2002. We had seen nothing like it. The inspirations were 2D led art from the likes of Jim Campbell and the emergence of 3D visualization technologies which were becoming popularized through Siggraph and the mainstream media. This was a little before the maker movement, on-line information about leds and led technology was very scarce. We did the best we could with the skills we had. Sources: Todd Holoubek (2002) LED Cube v1 Quote from Todd Holoubek in an email from April 2018 Left image: Dave Rowntree (2021) Big RGB LED cube you can built too Right image: Todd Holoubek, see first link above.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Jean Vanderdonckt. Category: Enabling technology Tags: LED, electronics, display, 3D, volumetric

2023 – A Matter Of Air

“A Matter of Air” is an interactive installation about environmental and public health policy. This project was a team effort of Aurelie Barbier, Katrin Bichler, Aron Cohen and Julie McEldoon. The installation visualizes data from the New York Community Air Survey from 2005–2016. Mapping Fine Particulate Matter, attributable health events, and income levels, we asked: Are the communities with the highest air pollution experiencing the worst health impacts, or are there other factors at play? The immersive installation allowed the audience to move through an abstraction of NYC and see pollution data mapped around them as tiny light particles. It consists of an array of 42 LED strings – each representing one of New York’s neighborhoods. Each individual LED on the string shows an annual data point. The colors of the LEDs indicate how the data is trending. Hot Spots are pink, Cold Spots are blue. The installation cycles through five data-sets: Fine Particulate Matter, Asthma in Children, Cardiovascular Events, Respiratory Hospitalizations and Poverty Level. The audience could access these datasets through an interactive panel that also provided more information. What we learned: Air Quality is improving overall. The worst Air Pollution could be found in Midtown / Chelsea between 2009-2014. The South Bronx had similar levels of pollution, but suffered more health consequences. In general, we see a correlation of the neighborhood’s poverty levels and how poor air quality affects the population’s health. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8tb9gvKxfQ&t=21s Source: Aurelie Barbier, Katrin Bichler, Aron Cohen and Julie McEldoon (2023) A Matter of Air, Visualizing Air Pollution in New York City. (archived version) Related: Also see our entry 2002 – LED Cubes.

Added by: Katrin Bichler. Category: Interactive installation Tags: air pollution, LED, NYC