When Stranger Things premiered in 2016, it was a cultural force. Foreign DJs gushed over the lush 80s soundtrack, fashionistas loved the clothing, and the world became obsessed with the idea of using Christmas lights to communicate across material planes. [kyjohnso] has recreated that experience with the technology of today.
If you haven’t watched the show — Joyce Byers is trying to communicate with her son Will, who just so happens to be stuck in another plane of existence called the Upside Down. She screams questions at her living room wall, upon which hangs a series of Christmas lights, marked with the letters A to Z. Will is able to communicate back by causing the lights to flash, one letter at a time.
This build works a little differently. You basically type a message into a terminal on a Raspberry Pi, and it gets sent to a large language model—namely, the Claude API. The response from Claude (or Will Byers, if you’re imagining) is then flashed out on a WS2812B set of LED Christmas lights on the wall. [kyjohnso] added dramatic pauses whenever there’s a space in the output, somewhat replicating the dramatic elements of the show itself. Files are on GitHub for the spooky and curious.
It’s a neat build that would be a hit at any Halloween party. We can’t imagine how much more immersive it would be if paired with a speech-to-text engine so you could actually scream at the thing like a distraught Midwestern parent who has just lost her youngest child. It’s all about committing to the bit; if you build such a thing, don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline!
Stranger Things is not just a ‘period drama’, but imo it is about the period itself. It’s a show about my childhood, when christmas lights were incandescent :)
Yes! Came here just to see if anything like this was in the comments 😂 after recently watching technology connection’s YouTube video on LED Christmas lights from last November.
After 3 episodes I realized the whole show was basically taking pieces from 80’s successes to form a mix between that what would make 40+ audience watch (with their kids). It felt 100% AI created. ever since it feels that a LOT of netflix shows are basically based on AI prompts. – eg PROMPT new characters, lore, and setting. Lean heavily into iconic 1980s pop-culture influences—arcade culture, synth-wave music, BMX bikes, videotapes, suburban cul-de-sacs, mall culture, neon aesthetics, Cold War tension, and classic Spielberg/Carpenter vibes. Include a tight mystery, a supernatural or sci-fi threat rooted in secret government experiments, and a close-knit group of teens whose dynamic reflects authentic 80s friendship tropes. Use witty dialogue, period-accurate references, and a cinematic structure. Deliver the pilot with scene descriptions, character introductions, and a strong narrative hook that sets up the season’s overarching mystery.”
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I did this for a Halloween party as dr stranger things and made the amulet he wore into a waffle amulet.
3d printed it with holes, added ws2811 and an arduino with an hc-05
Was fun
I watched a few episodes of that show, and not only was Winona Ryder playing the most annoying person on the planet, but the whole show itself is clearly not meant to be watched by anybody over the age of 15 max.
And I’m not a person who’s strict about such things at all, but nevertheless, this show is just cringe to the max if you aren’t a young teenager.