For 48 hours I worked with poets, novelists and a engineer to create an interactive artwork during the Garage48 Arts & Hardware event in 2019. The goal of this event is for the teams to create a project from the idea to prototype in 48 hours with the materials and specialists available at the event.
I worked in a team with a variety of professions and skills. We came up with an idea to have the authors each write a story about a specific location in the city of Tartu. Then create an interactive artwork that would display these stories in their respective locations. In collaboration with an engineer I came up with a design and execution of interactive book that could be displayed in a city environment. I designed the prototype and with the help of the engineer I built a functional artwork.
The artwork consists of a plexiglass with the story laser engraved and LED lights that lit up the text when the book is opened. Besides the text, it also has a QR code that takes the reader to the website where they can find the map of the artworks and through that find the rest of them. The artwork gets its energy for the lights from a dynamo that can be spinned around by hand.
With the Dream your Tartu project we won special prize to execute the project. For me it was a great experience to work and learn from people from a very different walk of life. People whose creativity is expressing itself in different forms compared to mine.