Drop what you’re doing and get thee to thy workshop. This is the last weekend of the Hackaday Circuit Sculpture Contest, the perfect chance for you to exercise the creative hacker within by building something artistic using stuff you already have on hand.
The concept is simple: build a sculpture where the electronic circuit is the sculpture. Wire the components up in a way that shows off that wiring, and uses it as the structure of the art piece. Seven top finishers will win prizes, but really we want to see everyone give this a try because the results are so cool! Need proof? Check out all the entries, then ooh and ah over a few we’ve picked out below. You have until this Tuesday at noon Pacific time to get in the game.
These are just three awesome examples of the different styles we’ve seen so far in the contest. Who needs a circuit board for a retro computer? Most people… but apparently not [Matseng] as this Z80 computer is freformed yet still interactive.
Really there can’t be many things more horrifying than the thought of spider robots, but somehow [Sunny] has taken away all of our fears. The 555 spider project takes “dead bug” to a whole new level. We love the angles in the legs, and the four SMD LEDs as spider eyes really finish the look of the tiny beast.
Finally, the 3D design of [Emily Valesco’s] RGB Atari Punk Console is spectacular. It’s a build that sounds great, and looks as though it will hold up to regular use. But visually, this earns a place on your desk long after the punky appeal wears off. We also like it that she added a color-coded photograph to match up the structure to the schematic, very cool!
What are you waiting for, whether it’s a mess of wires or a carefully structured electron ballet, we want to see your Circuit Sculpture!
This is a really fun contest to watch play out. Thanks for putting it on!
Agreed, I love these things! They’re so gorgeous when they’re done right.
I’d like to make a slight variant of the style where all the components are suspended by a woven matrix of magnet wire stretched taught over a circular frame, kind of like a dreamcatcher. So like a sculpture held together by tension instead of rigid structure. I’m not sure what to make, but I have some nice little displays that might look cool strung up like that. Probably not going to make the deadline, but I’ll work on it anyway.
Ok, so 9 PM Central European Time then. I’m still not fully finished with the processor-tower yet, but I’m slowly getting there. Gotta activate the afterburner – or as we say in Sweden – “Put another coal into the fire” ;-)
I call for bonus points if part of your circuit is magnetically levitated!