The Firefly Wind Light System revolves around a proprietary switch for sensing the wind. Picture an electrified wind chime; as the wind blows the metal chime into contact with the metal gong, it closes a circuit. Firefly's LED/switch pairs do the same thing, except on a much smaller scale. When the wind blows on their pendulum switch, they light up.

Originally developed as a Master's Thesis at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program in May of 2009, Firefly installations have since been featured at multiple arena-size musical events. Firefly 870 has been exhibited at the New York Hall of Science and was featured on Kanye West's Blog, KanyeUniverseCity. Several Firefly installations are currently being realized in the New York City area.

From July 31st to August 2nd, 2009, Firefly was commissioned for installation at the All Points West music festival at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. 35 2x2 ft panels were arranged to make a 10x14ft matrix of wind sensitive pixels. At All Points West, the Firefly system proved that it could stand up to high wind and torrential rain.

Firefly 1440 was built in a 2-week barrage of LED bending, hole drilling, and plexi fitting, in preparation for the Electric Daisy Carnival, a 2-day, 135,000 person rave at the Los Angeles Memorial Colisseum. The passerby was invited to "paint" on the piece with an electric leaf blower. Using the jet of air coming out of the blower, people were able to create bursts and waves of sparkling white light along Firefly's surface.

Coupling the Ambassador Bridge’s beautiful engineering with a stunning, large scale wind installation, would make it one of the most striking pieces of public art and architecture in the world. With several thousand Firefly LED modules installed on the bridge, observers on the banks of the river would get a stunning show. They would see patterns of light flowing over the bridge as the LEDs light up according to the wind blowing over the structure. Waves of light would propagate over the bridge’s sides, towers and cables, responding to the gusts and lulls coming across the Detroit River.

Firefly LED is a solar powered modular system for visualizing the wind as it blows over large outdoor structures. The modules are dispersed over a large area on an outdoor structure, each operating autonomously. As the wind flows over the structure, the modules sense the wind, turning on in response to the variance in wind speed.

Next to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston Harbor, the wind stirs up small choppy waves whose contours reflect the moonlight, breaking it into a series of dancing bluish, white flecks. The ICA's Firefly LED facade and the moon's reflection on the water complement each other, creating a beautiful organic light display with Boston skyline as a backdrop. People driving back from an event at the Bank of America Pavilion, and others returning home after their dinner, see the specs of white light cascading over the upper portion of the ICA.

Firefly 870 LED Protoype pairs 870 wind switches with 870 super-bright white LEDs to form an 8' x 8' grid. As the wind blows over the piece, the wind switches turn on each LED individually, triggering bursts of bright light in response to the wind.

Conceptually, this project developed out of an idea to create a modular system that does not rely on a central decision making hub, such as a computer. Instead, its modular design takes in data through its many nodes, allowing for extremely accurate and responsive output based on their immediate environments.

Wind is one of the few natural phenomena that can penetrate the dense urban environment. However, we can't see it because it needs a media to propagate through. The city, constructed of glass, steel and concrete, is intentionally rigid, not allowing nature to affect it. By purposefully adding a physical media for the wind to affect, we can make it a prominently visible feature of the urban environment, bringing natural beauty into the densest urban thicket.

Firefly 870 is a prototype designed for indoor use. A weather proof, outdoor system is currently under development.

This prototype of Firefly LED incorporates 210 LED's arranged in 6 rows of 35. The LEDs are inserted into rows of 1/2" Plexi-glass with all of the their anode wires soldered together. Each LED has a small wire hanging from its cathode. The wires hang through the supporting aluminum structure, powered with 3.3V from a computer power supply. On the bottom of each wire is a small, transparent plastic sail, helping them to catch the wind. As wind blows over the piece, the wires are blown into contact with the aluminum frame. The LEDs turn on in varying patterns corresponding to the timing and pressure exerted upon their wire switches.

Ongoing work and references for this project can be found on my blog, here.

Patent Pending