ThingM Seedkit: Digital Puppetry.

The spring 2011 LCC 4730 course was a unique experience for the Georgia Tech students who participated that semester.  Professor Alexandra Mazalek and her students delved into the world of digital puppetry – the class project consisting of teams building a cat, gangster, security guard, small boy, and old lady puppets using various electronic devices.  The final performance was a museum robbery masterminded by the old lady.

The cat and gangster teams used ThingM BlinkM’s to exaggerate the puppets personae.  The cat’s eyes convey anger by changing color while the gangster puffs as cigar the audience can see. BlinkM’s were a great choice for both projects since the LED’s were very bright, allowing audience members easily see the puppets features.  The BlinkM Sequencer software allows the LED’s to fade in and out as well as change color.  This is crucial to the puppets, which use color and lights to display emotion to come alive!