My goal is to create a sculpture that encourages participants to interact with it and create collaborative art. Specifically I made the tree where each leaf, when touched, changes colors from an internal, bright LED . As all of the leaves are connected together, the tree can "shiver" when touched. Depending on how long an individual touches the leaf, the response can change. With 30+ leaves on the tree, this becomes a 3d interactive display - light bright 3.0 if you will. People can try to change all the leaves to one color or put patterns into the leaves. The tree then retains a history - why is the tree blue now, who did that?
As an additional part of my work, I measure people's physiological arousal - what makes them excited and frustrated. I'm planning on connecting my tree to wireless sensors that measure excitement. As a participant gets more and more excited, the tree changes colors. Perhaps, when calm the tree is blue, but as the audience becomes more excited, the tree changes red and starts flashing more dynamic patterns of color.
