Using the Adafruit Adabox #017 I added leds and an e-ink display to a lasercut lightbox made of steel by Coast Salish artist Xwalacktun as a gift this year.
A miniature version of He-yay meymuy (Big Flood), it’s 30cm tall with an 11cm diameter. The original piece is an impressive 487.8cm tall by 167.6cm made of aluminum. Located at the entrance to the Audain Art Museum, it’s is a powerful piece inside a beautiful building.
I used a metre of RGB neopixels wrapped around a cardboard tube, diffused with the bubblewrap, and plugged into the Adafruit Magtag to animate rain. In this mode the lightbox will eventually fill to a full blue colour.
There are three other modes with different colours and animations using the Adafruit_led_animation library. Each mode animates differently and updates the e-ink display with a section of art from the lightbox.
I even upcycled the spool from the neopixel strip to mount the MagTag as it fit snuggly. There are plenty of other features I’ve yet to take advantage using built in Wi-fi, light sensor, etc.
The base is made with glued pieces of western red cedar to mimic the architecture of the museum and carved to receive the artwork.