Helium Arts: Fireflies Project

Make Create Innovate worked with artists-in-residence at Temple Street University Children’s Hospital on ‘Temple of Treasures’, a unique live game event developed as part of the Helium Arts ‘Fireflies’ project.

In collaboration with the artists Rachel Tynan and Make Create Innovate’s Siobhån Clancy, Kate Delaney and Shane Byrne developed a set of touch responsive units as navigation tools for the game.

Capacitive touch sensors triggered internal LEDs to illuminate the artwork on the surface of each unit and ‘light’ the players way through the game world in the hospital.  Simple conductive circuits enabled  audio playback when the copper-taped sides of the unit connected with copper mounts of puzzle pieces. The units and puzzle pieces were laser cut from tinted acrylic. The audio, pre-recorded and edited by the artists with young project participants, was transmitted to players’ headphones via Bluetooth, providing coded directions in the form of clues and riddles.

According to Helium Arts, by creating an interactive treasure trail within the architectural and social framework of a hospital, the artists aimed to offer young people the chance to explore creative ‘way-finding’ skills that might resonate with their own journeys through change.

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