Plane Warp

In a dark room, the black structure of this piece disappears, leaving only a distorted grid of light floating overhead. Plane Warp is a 16 x 16 matrix with a sweeping surface wave that ends in sharp points.

Because the wave's peak sits far above the base, lighting the corners meant running the LEDs at full brightness. I destroyed an early print trying to push enough light up there. The trapped heat ruined it.

It hung on the ceiling at Glow Lounge for a while. To get it there, I changed the cell design. I printed black walls to isolate each channel, lined the insides with white, and added a frosted diffusion layer. That combination became the rule: bounce the light instead of forcing it. It let me cap the controller to a one-amp limit, and the plastic survived.