The Cyberpunk Bar is a custom-built environment based on the video game Cyberpunk 2077, located on a Neuralink campus. Stark Raven Fabrication had open-ended creative control of the project and reached out to me to conceptualize and build something unique and engaging for the space. I designed a highly music-reactive lighting system made up of programmable LEDs, creating an immersive lighting and sound experience for guests. Guests can control the color, brightness, and level of responsiveness with Super Nintendo controllers built into the bar.
photo: Kiera Hand
photo: Kiera Hand
photo: Kiera Hand
photo: Kiera Hand
photo: Kiera Hand
photo: Kiera Hand
Details
The music responsive system is one of my own creation, which I refined over many months. It was straightforward to get the system to respond to music, but it took countless iterations to get the lights to look how the music sounds. My goal with the system was to go beyond basic beat detection and instead represent the entire spectrum of the music in a visual manner. The system is based on Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) on top of which I added an adaptive layer which allows music of any genre, tempo, or volume to be visualized in a compelling way.
As well as creating the music responsive system, I designed and built all control electronics for 3137 individually addressable WS2815 LEDs. This work includes the design of all power and signal distribution systems. In addition to programming the microcontrollers in Arduino C++, I created software in Python to tune the system live from a laptop connected to the control boards.
