'Poly-Mer' Contact Lens LED Light Sculpture

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Hi,

I’ve created an LED light sculpture out of plastic contact lens trays and uses Processing. I call the piece Poly-Mer.
Video of Poly-Mer

Poly-Mer_03
Poly-Mer_03.jpg957×538 145 KB

Disposable contact lenses are typically packaged in single-use plastic containers. Poly-Mer is a light sculpture which repurposes these plastic trays into a shingled translucent surface, which is then used to diffuse the glowing light of a low-resolution matrix of LEDs.

The plastic trays are held in arrangement by a series of interlocking custom 3D-printed holders. The material surface formed by these trays is animated by a video of ocean waves, bringing plastic and water together as a reminder of the perils of plastic ocean pollution.

Materials and platforms include: plastic contact lens trays, LEDs, 3D-printed holders, wood, metal brackets, Peggy 2.0 LED board (by EvilMadScience), wiring, Arduino Uno, Processing, Raspberry Pi.

Some notes about the Processing sketch of Poly-Mer:

  • Originated from a sketch called “Video Mirror for Peggy”
  • Based on the processing sketch “Mirror” by Daniel Shiffman
  • Modified by Windell H Oskay to adapt video to Peggy 2.0 LED board
  • Incorporates code from Jay Clegg, http://planetclegg.com/projects/
  • Also modified by Justin Lui, Nikita Pashenkov, and Gautam Rangan
  • Uses the GL Video library by Gottfried Haider
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Nice work. :clap: I’m a big fan of re-purposed items.

Are all these lenses from personal use or did you announce publicly that you would be collecting lenses? It would also be interesting if you had a basket of left over empty plastic trays on display as well. I wonder if making it at an even larger scale, and with different kind of packaging trays, would communicate further the enormity of this consumption.

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What concept do you use to generate the light patterns?

Interesting project.

Kf

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More photos of the project here: http://www.justinlui.net/projects/poly-mer/

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Thanks @WakeMeAtThree! Those contact lens trays come from a blend of sources; some were from my own use of contact lenses, some were from friends, and some were from a generous optometry clinic that donated some trays. Some trays were discarded due to trial-and-error when I was experimenting with various sandblasting methods (to give them a frosted translucent surface, to better diffuse the LEDs), so I needed multiple sources of trays.

re: making this at a larger scale or with different kinds of single-use plastic containers, I agree, I’ve been thinking along the same lines for a possible next project. Would be great if I could get a grant to do this…!

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Thanks @kfrajer. The animation of the LEDs is a video of the ocean ripples and waves (which I shot at Channel Islands, in Southern California). The concept is to show the ocean on a surface made of single-use plastic, evoking the urgent issue of plastic ocean pollution.

The video is an .mov file that the Processing sketch is playing.