Glisson Engineering

Electric Flora was an interactive installation created for ACM’s 2014 Designing Interactive Systems. The project centered on an electro-static energy harvesting system that turned a person’s motion into light. The installation explored “the interaction of bodies in space, movement, materials, and electrostatic energy.”

Electric Flora

Electric Flora used the triboelectric effect – the exchange of charges from rubbing insulators – to convert a person’s movement on a polyester floor to an electric charge on their body. This charge would light up hanging rods of LEDs on contact with the user.

 

I was part of the development team for Electric Flora and was responsible for the design of the mechanical support structure for the lighting system as well as leading the construction of the first installation. In addition I helped refine and improve the electrostatic harvesting system utilized in the piece.