Project Title: LED Umbrella With Arduino

Project Creator: Matthew Poage

Project Description: The LED umbrella is a customizable, blinking LED art experience. In my opinion it must be classified as art because it obviously cannot serve the purpose of a regular umbrella, as is would break (and possibly hurt you) the minute you took it out into the rain.

Materials needed:

  • 1 x Microcontroller — Arduino Diecimilia
  • 1 x Umbrella
  • 1 x MIC2981
  • 1 x Protoshield for Arduino with tiny breadboard
  • 80 x LED
  • 8 x resistors

Skills needed: Soldering, patience.

Picture of Making the LED Matrix -- Anode Rings
Making the LED Matrix

Project Link: https://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Umbrella-with-Arduino/

Response:

This piece caught my eye because unlike a lot of Arduino projects it doesn’t even pretend to have a pragmatic purpose, and is pretty clearly art. I am generally interested in wearables and costumes that incorporate electronics. This piece reminded me of costumes from Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour, designed by

Image result for taylor swift how you get the girl 1989 tour
Taylor Swift’s lightup tour outfit, designed by electronic engineers Dave Sheinkopf, James DeVito, and Dylan Fashbaugh, and costume designer Asher Levine, 2014.

Information on Taylor Swift tour outfit: https://www.instyle.com/news/taylor-swift-led-light-outfit-costume-1989-world-tour