Kickstarter

Who I am: Hello, world! My name is Gabriela, and I am a second year student at NYU ITP. For more info about me and my projects, please visit my blog. 

What this is: This project is called Light Up Pop Up NYC. Help fulfill my dream of repurposing MTA subway maps to make art! I'm a big fan of transportation, maps and electronics, and my campaign's purpose is to create an interactive pop-up book of NYC in which the main stations are lit up by tiny, super bright surface-mount LEDs. 

How it works: All the circuitry will be hidden between the layers of paper so that it lies flat, like a regular pop-up book. Imagine a parallel system of copper tape subway lines running behind the paper, and that the LEDs are soldered where the stations go. 

Why I'm doing this: I think the NYC subway map is underused as an object of art. I've been working on a prototype of Manhattan with one station lit up, but the project is complicated because the soldering at such a small scale requires a lot of time, patience and precision. If time and resources allow, I want to connect photocells or a PIR motion sensor to the front of the book to add an element of interactivity, and control the lights with a Lilypad Arduino. 

Materials: the funding will go towards materials such as super-bright surface mount LEDs, Lilypads, special paper. If you are a special backer, you will get a one-page book for your home.

When you can see it: The book (in its entirety or the finished pages) will be displayed at ITP's table at the MoCCA Fest, on April 28 and 29. I estimate that the final product will be finished sometime in late May.