Abstract Geometric LED Suit

Enlighted was commissioned to create this lighted suit for a musician to wear while performing. We created an abstract geometric pattern by cutting out rectangles, trapezoids, and other shapes from an opaque fabric. Behind the cutouts, we mounted a dense grid of RGB LED backlighting with a diffusing layer to produce a smooth field of light. The resulting effect is a bit like an animated stained glass window.

We used motocross safety gear as the base garments, which provided a rugged foundation that was not too hot to wear on stage. The jacket is a heavy duty mesh with reinforced pads on the front, back, shoulders, and forearms. The pants have removable thigh pads, and the knee/shin guards are worn over the pants, and connected to the LED controller with detachable plugs.

The LED controller, batteries, and wireless DMX receiver are mounted in pockets on the back of the wasitband. The lights are animated in a variety of patterns that are stored as pre-defined modes within the controller. The modes can be selected with repeated presses of a manual mode switch in the costume, or they can be triggered in any order via DMX commands. The DMX interface also allows some of the lighting effect variables to be modified from the console, such as the RGB values of the background colors and the speeds of certain moving patterns.

video

The video below demonstrates some of the animation patterns.