Winged Light Sculpture Acquired by Capital University, Schumacher Gallery Permanent Collections

by Daric Gill

“The Imagination Machine, Version 2”, is a motion-sensing light sculpture made from a reclaimed airplane wing and artist-programmed circuit boards. After re-envisioning the installation with a ground-up redesign, I am excited to announce that it has now joined the ranks of Warhol, Picasso, Gaugin, & Dali in the permanent collection at The Schumacher Gallery at Capital University. Read more below.

The Schumacher Gallery & its impressive permanent art collection overlook Capital University’s campus from atop the Blackmore Library in Bexley, Ohio USA. As you enter the gallery from the elevator, you’ll be greeted by nearly 2,500 works of art that span 2,000 years of cultural history. As you can imagine, it’s a great honor that my work has been included in such a collection.

About the Sculpture

The separate halves of the wing are run by 2 independent control centers located near the tips of each end. Naturally, this means that starting from the middle of the plane wing, each side runs & counts interactions separately. A clear acrylic window on each control center lets viewers gaze into the inner workings of the robotic wing, including the ‘brains’, fuses, & power distribution to the LEDs.

With each interaction of the 4 motion sensors, the nearly 20-foot (5.75 meters) upside-down translucent wing lights up with colors pulled from my travels around the world. Vibrant greens from the waterfall-misted grasses lining the Swiss Alps, hues of magenta from sunsets along the Californian coast, the rust-colored terracotta rooftops of Germany, & the banana yellow from a Cuban Coco Taxi rickshaw are only a few of the colors that are displayed on the wings. Version 2 also tallies each engagement & celebrates notable milestones by lighting up with special sequences. These sequences can be seen after 50, 100, 200, & 500 activations before the brain restarts the counter back to 0.

Though the sculpture looks similar to the first iteration from a distance, the internal parts that run everything got quite an expansive redesign. The Imagination Machine’s new home had a set of unique parameters that drove me to re-envision the concept from the ground up. The electronics needed to be updated and the software rewritten with offline capabilities in mind. This opportunity allowed me to switch up its purpose & upgrade almost every major electrical component, wire, & layout for permanent installation. New power supplies were installed, LED strands were swapped out, custom circuit boards were designed & fabricated, wires were rerouted in neatly bundled lines, & a new layout for all electronics was mapped out in CAD before their precise mounting holes were laser cut from acrylic plastic. Check out how I made Version 1 here!

Thanks & Acknowledgement

I want to take some time to thank the gallery director, David Gentilini, for his efforts in this purchase & the people who work behind the scenes at Capital University to make the permanent collection what it is. Gentilini & the Schumacher Gallery have exhibited my work several times in the past & I’m tremendously grateful for their continued partnership & support. To download the gallery’s app & view their collection online, click here. Additionally, a major point of gratitude goes to Mark Curtner, who helped me acquire the plane. Also, I’d like to give a shout-out to WeLasers, who stepped in last minute when the laser cutting equipment & maker space I usually use became unreliable.