Gallery: Watch: A Rad Gadget That Lets You Paint With Light
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Pixelstick, a new gadget for light painters, gets loaded up with graphics, waved in front of a camera that has a long exposure capabilities, and creates illuminated images—even animated gifs—that seem to hang in the air like ghosts. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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Pixelstick is a radiant apparatus designed for the age of Instagram. A 6 foot long aluminum extrusion that houses a strip of 198 addressable RGB LEDs is controlled by an onboard microprocessor and new images can be loaded through an SD card. On-board functionality allows the artist to control the brightness of the LEDs, the rate at which the pixels change, as well as remotely trigger their camera creating dynamic animations. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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"We're really looking forward to seeing our feeds teeming with stuff we never thought possible," says Frazier. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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*Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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By loading several images onto Pixelstick and using a camera's time lapse function, sophisticated animations can be created. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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Light painting is an artform that dates back to the 19th century, Pablo Picasso even dabbled in it, but it's just now ready for its closeup. Photosharing startups are on fire, Vine and Snapchat have prepared people to think of themselves as photographers and to approach image making in new ways, and Pixelstick gives them a tool that reduces the creative friction. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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It may take users a while to get up to speed on Pixelstick's finer points, but McGuigan and Frazier aren't too worried about delivering the product by the promised May 2014 delivery date. Having previously delivered a crowdfunded piece of hardware has equipped them with the knowledge required to navigate the sometimes opaque world of manufacturing. "Mass production is often hydra-like in it's ability to grow two new problems from the stump of the one you just lopped off," says Frazier. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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The pair had been experimenting with long exposure photography for years and wanted to move beyond the flashlights, iPhones, and other improvised light sources they had been using to sketch to something that offered more creative control. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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A handle bisects the aluminum shaft and makes it easy to hold the stick steady for long exposures, or to twirl it expressively. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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Pixelstick quickly blew past its $110,000 goal on Kickstarter and has attracted nearly 1,000 backers. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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When asked what the common traits of light painters are, Pixelstick creator Duncan McCloud Frazier wasn't able to reduce it to a simple list. "Whether they've been slinging light since the Nixon years or they're just beginning, there doesn't seem to be any one thing that ties us together other than a love of the elegant and unpredictable nature of light." *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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"We'd like to think of it as bringing new equipment to an old sport," says Frazier. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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"Some of our most interesting captures have come from accidents or images we were simply testing with," says Pixelstick creator Steve McGuigan. "Almost anything will work." *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
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Designs need to be set up in Photoshop or some other graphic editing program. Images must be captured using a DSLR or other camera that has a long exposure setting and can only be captured in darkened rooms or at night. Moving the wand at the right rate requires practice and a little finesse. *Photo: Bitbanger Labs*
