Category: Projects

2025 Theme: Movin It

Each year we orient our collaborative installations, workshops, and Saturday night art show around a theme. We are pleased to announce for 2024 our theme is MOVIN’ IT — inviting participants to explore kinetic energy as a creative inspiration.

Whether gears or motors, wind or water, digital animation, dance or play — movement brings art to life as materials are transformed over space and time. For 2025, we encourage artists, technologists, designers, makers and builders to play with movement itself as a creative medium.

As an ongoing theme spanning several years, we also seek to continue our path toward installations that are more ecologically resilient, and ask participants to integrate renewable energy into their projects where feasible.

How it Works

For our group show, we provide a basic framework around the theme, and then recruit artists, technologists, scientists, and designers to take on aspects of that theme, playing with technologically-infused, sensing, interactive and self-illuminated elements.

In the style of hackathons, you may bring your own piece to work on, you may join other emergent collaborations, or you may just show up to enjoy the show. Projects are shared during our Saturday night art show and party, which is open to the public.

Participating artists and technology creatives may include light, sound, video, performance, landscaping, architectural elements, in addition to visual art, however we encourage all projects incorporate an electronic, sensing, interactive, or self-illuminated component, to be experienced outdoors at night.

Art grants were available to $500 for material project support or subsidized tickets, learn more here. The deadline is Friday April 4, 2025.

2024 Wrap Up

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It was another fantastic year at Electric Sky, with a particularly great line-up of workshops. We cannot thank everyone enough for all your help in making this event happen, between our workshop organizers, artists, setup and takedown volunteers, planning and organizing, designing, marketing…well it goes on and on. It takes a village!

We were particularly happy with how the workshops and the art integrated the 2024 Theme: SUN WIND WATER, exploring renewable energy in art. We learned a lot and will keep leveraging our new know-how to leverage renewable technologies like solar panels and wind turbines in our installations.

Community Intros

Workshops

Pop-up Art Show

The Scenery

Granted Participants

Through the generosity of 4Culture, Third Place Technologies is providing grants to support participating artists and technologists using AR, XR, electronics, sensors, interactivity, solar technologies, and self-illumination to craft installations and workshops that resonate with our theme exploring renewable energies.

Our 2024 art+tech+workshop contributors include Alexandra Krongel, Andrew Cole, Katrina Romero, TYPONEXUS, Church of the Black Hole, Ana Davidson, Bruce Cooper, jeff brice, Genevieve Tremblay, Falona Joy and Shelly D. Farnham, Ph.D.

We are incredibly excited, it’s going to be fantastic year!


THIRD PLACE TECHNOLOGIES extends our thanks to our program partners and supporters: 4Culture, Town of Skykomish, hashtag#RenewablesforArtists hashtag#TotallyLegit, hashtag#SkyArtworks

2024 Theme: Sun Wind Water

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Each year we orient our collaborative installations, workshops, and Saturday night art show around a theme. We are pleased to announce for 2024 our theme is Sun Wind Water — inviting participants to explore the use of renewable energies in their projects.

As we consider a future that is more ecologically resilient with clean energy, we ask artists, designers, and creative technologists to explore projects that are both technological — with sound, movement, and lighting — yet unplugged from a power grid. In other words, how can we integrate renewable energies into our art, using technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, and water batteries? Or perhaps more directly, how might we leverage the sun, wind, and water as creative mediums that animate our installations?

How it Works

For our group show, we provide a basic framework around the theme, and then recruit artists, technologists, scientists, and designers to take on aspects of that theme, playing with technologically-infused, sensing, interactive and self-illuminated elements.

In the style of hackathons, you may bring your own piece to work on, you may join other emergent collaborations, or you may just show up to enjoy the show. Projects are shared during our Saturday night art show and party, which is open to the public.

Participating artists and technology creatives may include light, sound, video, performance, landscaping, architectural elements, in addition to visual art, however we encourage all projects incorporate an electronic, sensing, interactive, or self-illuminated component, to be experienced outdoors at night.

Art grants were available to $500 for material project support or subsidized tickets, learn more here. The deadline was Friday April 26 (now past).

Thanks and Wrapping Up 2017

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This years’ Electric Sky was a resounding success and we cannot thank everyone enough for your active participation!  (For more imagery, check out our summarizing slide show or  see our video).
Our primary goal with this event is to foster the community of creatives at the intersection of art and technology in the Pacific Northwest – building collaborative relationships, developing best practices, engaging in life-long learning, and inspiring new innovation.  Our secondary goal is to share the art generated by the event with the public, and in particular with the small rural communities of the Skykomish River valley.

Reactive Path

Reactive Path

Ripples

Ripples

creativity lab

creativity lab

CNC Workshop

CNC Workshop

This year we organized our collaborative efforts around the “Wondering Woods” theme, exploring what if the woods could talk?  What if they can sense you and respond?  As a part of this effort we hosted a pre-event workshop instructing artists and tech creatives how to use sensors, and at the event we had a CNC router workshop and a project-based workshop for kids to engage with the environment and integrate sound into a group installation.  We also hosted an open creativity lab to encourage emergent on-site collaboration in the style of hackathons.  A total of 71 art and tech creatives attended, including 12 kids, and 40-50 visitors from the region came to our opening night party.

Bluuume

Bluuume

Time Vortex

Time Vortex

The Lordly Ones

The Lordly Ones

The Lordly Ones Closeup

The Lordly Ones Closeup

This was our third year, and thanks in large part to our grant from 4Culture, which we used to fund new projects, we observed the depths of the interdisciplinary collaborations and the quality of the art achieve a new level.  Electric Sky is evolving into not only an art and tech retreat, but a new works incubator.   We are very happy to report that we have been invited as a collective to return to both Lusio and Arts-a-Glow to share our Wondering Woods installation with thousands more in Seattle and Burien.

Opening Night party

Opening Night party

Electric Sky

Electric Sky

Do you want to see more? Check out our summarizing slide show.
Part I shows overview of the Electric Sky event, and Part II shows the “Wondering Woods” art.
Some of the art was animated, interactive, or included sound, so we made a 2-minute video with some highlights.  See our video.

In the Lab

In the Lab

Life-long Learning and Mentorship

Life-long Learning and Mentorship

Path Lighting

Path Lighting

Borealis Break

Borealis Break

Here are some more photos shared by community members:
Shelly Farnham.
Jole Sack.
Leo Spizzirri.
Elizabeth Ostasiewski
If you are excited by what you see, why wait until next year to get involved? Check out our community page.

Check out People and Projects in the Works

Electric Sky is shaping up to be fabulous event!  Find our lists of participating people and projects in the ArtsTechNW Spokin community.  (Spokin is our networking tool for creative, collaborative communities.)

You can add yourself and your project(s) to the community and join the conversation by requesting to join ArtsTechNW.

projects

Call for Participation: Wondering Woods

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Sensor Mote Swarm

Sensor Mote Swarm

Call for Artists & Tech Creatives “Wondering Woods” Grant Proposals

We our focusing this years’ group collaboration around the theme “The Wondering Woods”.  Help us explore the question: what if the trees could talk?  What if the forest was a living, conscious, interactive being?  We have small grants (200$-1000$) and free tickets to support participating creatives.  If interested, please learn more about the theme and check out our application.  Due date is May 1st.

Seeking Workshop Proposals

What would you like to learn?  What would you like to share?  If you want to propose a workshop please email shelly at totallylegitllc dot com.

Seeking Volunteers

Get involved!  We are looking for help with our group meal, signs, promotion, reception, opening party bar, path layout, and so forth.  You’ll meet great people, and active volunteers get a free ticket!  please email shelly at totallylegitllc dot com to ask about how you might want to volunteer.

The Luminous Garden goes on the road

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The Luminous Garden, originally created for Electric Sky, went on the road this summer, with appearances at Lusio in Volunteer Park and at Arts-a-Glow at Burien.  Since Electric Sky is a smaller event (more of an artists’ retreat and exhibition for locals in the Sky Valley), this was a great opportunity to share the experience with a much broader audience.  Thousands of people have now walked through our otherworldly garden, and by all appearances it has been very well received!  Thanks to the producers of Lusio and Arts-a-Glow for the opportunity to share this work.

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Flower of Power at Arts-a-Glow

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Sensor Mote Swarm at Arts-a-Glow

You will also find the garden at a winter, indoor installation at the Vermillion, an art gallery and bar in Capitol Hill, in Seattle.  Keep your eyes open for posts about that event in December.

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Mushrooms by Briar Bates at Lusio

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The crowd in the garden at Lusio

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Fountain

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Lighter than Air

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Sensor Mote Swarm at Lusio

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The Portal at Lusio