Lampyridae
by Matteo Marangoni & Dieter Vandoren

Lampyridae is a participatory experience in which humans facilitate the establishment of a society of artificial entities called Lampyridae, which is the Latin denomination for the family of the fireflies. The Lampyridae are devices that operate as a distributed local network using communication protocols that are situated entirely within the range of human perception. Each participant is given a small portable, handheld device that is capable of both emitting and sensing light and sound signals. Participants act as carriers of these autonomous objects, facilitating the emergence of swarm-like behaviors as the devices communicate between each other in space, immersing the audience in a field of pulsating light beams and spatial sound projections.

For this project I designed the little devices, following the concept of shaping a little creature that the members of the audience would have to carry around. The devices are made of a little 3d printed trumpet and some wooden ribs around it to determinate the shape of the "creatures" (made using a cnc milling machine), there are 4 variations of ribs, and we produced a total of 70 devices (really not fun, but the result is great!). Every device also contains 2 pcbs that allows the devices to communicate to each others and play some sounds.

You can find some work in progress pictures here

And here you find more info about the the project and about the "iii"