# 'Poly-Mer' Contact Lens LED Light Sculpture

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490>\
**Category:** Gallery\
**Created:** [July 4, 2018, 9:35am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490 "2018-07-04T09:35:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![justinlui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@justinlui](https://discourse.processing.org/u/justinlui)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 9:35am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/1 "2018-07-04T09:35:20Z")

</div>

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_**](https://vimeo.com/268545591)

 ![Poly-Mer_03](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/1X/2240f6f6f0a04f84d081cffa44012d89d2398b1a.jpg)

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/](http://planetclegg.com/projects/)
- Also modified by Justin Lui, Nikita Pashenkov, and Gautam Rangan
- Uses the GL Video library by Gottfried Haider

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![WakeMeAtThree](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/wakemeatthree/32/38_2.png) [@WakeMeAtThree](https://discourse.processing.org/u/WakeMeAtThree)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 9:49am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/2 "2018-07-04T09:49:11Z")

</div>

Nice work. 👏 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.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kfrajer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/kfrajer/32/196_2.png) [@kfrajer](https://discourse.processing.org/u/kfrajer)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/3 "2018-07-04T17:54:34Z")

</div>

What concept do you use to generate the light patterns?

Interesting project.

Kf

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![justinlui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@justinlui](https://discourse.processing.org/u/justinlui)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/4 "2018-07-05T17:51:22Z")

</div>

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

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeremydouglass](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/jeremydouglass/32/20_2.png) [@jeremydouglass](https://discourse.processing.org/u/jeremydouglass)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/5 "2018-07-07T01:20:14Z")

</div>



---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![justinlui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@justinlui](https://discourse.processing.org/u/justinlui)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/6 "2018-07-07T02:15:17Z")

</div>

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…!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![justinlui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@justinlui](https://discourse.processing.org/u/justinlui)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/poly-mer-contact-lens-led-light-sculpture/1490/7 "2018-07-07T02:19:32Z")

</div>

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.