The PHM is a wire wearable “machine” that lives within the Dynaxian universe.
Materials: 14 gauge steel wire, 18 gauge aluminum wire, 20 gauge steel wire, 18 gauge copper wire, 24 gauge stranded copper wire, Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller, neoprene heatshrink tubing, polymer dental floss, LEDs, resistors, 30lb paper coated in olive oil, triple “A” batteries.
My goal with the design and building of this “machine” was to create a wearable wire sculpture that snuggles the arm and palm in sinewy organic shapes that result from worked wire, and to combine this with visual stimulation reminiscent of light as seen through dense fog or at a great distance.
I do not typically work in wire. Or at least, not in wire such that it is the majority component of the final work. However, I became increasingly enamored with the material, and even motivated by the difficulty of working with steel wire to create a form-fitting, comfortable and (whimsically) functional device.
The sculpture incorporates a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller as a “brain” connecting the three finger rings to the six LEDs. The brain runs custom software written in Circuitpython that “listens” to the movement of the finger rings to both navigate a simple LED-based menu system and alter the sequence and speed of the LED blink patterns. This allows the interactor to tune the wearable’s responsiveness to their liking as well as choose between a number of different LED light patterns and algorithms enabling more or less interactivity.