While at World Maker Faire New York last weekend, I found myself chatting to a rather lovely gentleman by the name of Mac Pierce. During our conversation, Mac mentioned a project he’d worked on called As We Are, an interactive art installation located in the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

“So it’s this 14-foot head covered in LEDs…”, Mac began, and after his brief explanation, I found myself grabbing nearby makers to have him tell them about the project too. I was hooked! I hadn’t even seen photos of the sculpture, yet I was hooked. And true to his word, Mac had the press release for As We Are sitting in my inbox when I returned to Pi Towers.

So here is it:

The Greater Columbus Convention Center: “As We Are” – Creating the Ultimate Selfie Machine DCL, an award-winning fabricator of architectural specialties and custom experiential design elements, worked with artist Matthew Mohr to develop, engineer and fabricate this 14ft, 7,000lb, interactive digital sculpture. Featuring custom LED modules, an integrated 3D photobooth, 32 cameras, and a touch-screen display – this unique project combines technologies to present a seamless experience for visitors to display their own portrait on the sculpture.

As We Are

The brainchild of artist Matthew Mohr, As We Are was engineered and produced by DCL, an award-winning Boston-based fabricator whose greatest achievement to date, in my opinion at least, is hiring Mac Pierce.

DCL built the 14-foot structure using 24 layers of aluminium ‘ribs’ covered in custom Sansi LED modules. These modules add up to an astounding 850000 individual LEDs, allowing for crisp detail of images displayed by the build.

When a visitor to the Convention Center steps inside the interactive sculpture, they’re met with a wall of 32 Raspberry Pis plus Camera Modules. The Pis use facial recognition software to 3D scan the visitor’s face and flattened the image, and then map the face across the outer surface of the structure.

Matthew Mohr was inspired to show off the diversity of Columbus, OH, while also creating a sense of oneness with As We Are. Combining technology and interaction, the sculpture has been called “the ultimate selfie machine”.

If you’re in or near Columbus and able to visit the installation, we’d love to see your photos, so please share them with us on our social media platforms.

Always tell us

Had it not been for a chance encounter with Mac at Maker Faire, we may never have heard of As We Are. While Matthew Mohr and DCL installed the sculpture in 2017, very little fuss was made about the use of Raspberry Pis within it, and it completely slipped under our radar. So if you are working on a project for your business, as a maker, or for any other reason, and you’re using a Raspberry Pi, please make sure to let us know by emailing comms@raspberrypi.org.