Category: Uncategorized

What a great Electric Sky!  We cannot thank everyone enough for helping to make it happen, it’s very much a community-driven event, and we are always so inspired by the projects and the on-site collaboration!

Collaboration and Community

Our main goal at Electric Sky is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the PNW at the intersections of art, technology, science and design, in the context of a mountain retreat where attendees also meaningfully engage with the beautiful environment of the upper Skykomish river valley. Collaborating, socializing, eating together, having fun together — are all key ingredients of community development.

Workshops

We hosted several workshops, with the goal of supporting life-long learning and community building opportunities. Thanks so much to our workshop hosts, for sharing their knowledge and skills!

Super Natural Art Show

Finally, we ended the event with a pop-up art show on Saturday night around the theme “Super Natural”, structured as an art walk around the Skykomish Ballpark, and asking artists, designers, and tech creatives to examine the space between nature and technology where imagination meets the unknown. Below is a map of the art show and our favorite pictures and videos of the projects.

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THANKS AGAIN

We thank our organizers, volunteers, and creative community for making Electric Sky happen, including the crews of Third Place Technologies and Totally Legit! We also thank 4Culture and the Town of Skykomish for supporting this event. It takes a village to raise a creative retreat and art show!

*photo credits: All photos were provided by attendees, including Shelly Farnham, Daniel Robbins, Andrew Cole, Daisy Yen, Ron Smith, and Joel Walters. Email shelly at third place technologies dot com if you wish to follow up on a particular image.

We are excited to announce our DRAFT workshop schedule! We say draft because we are still confirming details and are considering one or two more options.

At Electric Sky, we host workshops to help you improve your practice as a creative artist, designer, or technologist. These hands-on workshops for the most part will be tied to the theme (2026: Supernatural), and some will encourage you to add a project to our pop-up art show. Learn, connect with other creative folks, and share!

• Green Workshop Tent:
  • Friday 8:30pm-9:30pm Make your Own Pepper’s Ghost
  • Saturday 9:30am-11:00am Hacking ESP32s to Make a Music Box
  • Saturday 11:30am-1:00pm Soldering 101, Make an LED Pin
  • Saturday 1:30pm – 3:00pm How to Set Up Analog Feedback Loops for Glitchy Video Art
  • Saturday 3:30pm – 5:00pm DJ Your Own Private Radio Station
• Yellow Workshop Tent:
  • Saturday 10:00am-11:00am Lighten Up with LED Charm Jewelry (kid friendly)

Workshop Descriptions:

Space is limited in our workshops, so be sure to register in advance. We will be sending registered attendees the workshop sign up information mid July. In other words registered participants will receive sign up priority.

*Several of the workshops are designed for mixed-age attendees. Parents should attend workshops with kids 14 and under, and should be within earshot for ages 15 – 18. Workshops marked “Ages 15+” indicate the complexity of content, manual dexterity, or patience required is not appropriate for kids but a teenager could probably handle it.

Remember, *anyone* can show up with a project at Electric Sky and we encourage you to do so!

That said, small grants (up to $500) are provided for some larger-scale projects to help cover project costs.

We are excited to announce our granted recipients and projects for 2026 include: Josh Lind, bring back Popagenda and Puppet Karaoke; Joel Walters, for A Magic Carpet Ride; Jennifer Davis for Mycelium Symphony; Joseph Gray for Glow Cart; Ron Smith for Honeycomb Lights; Nicholas Bowen for Rememberance Gate; Cam Smith for Music Box; Church of the Black Hole for Advanced Toy Research; Andrew Cole and Jeffrey Larson for Beacon/Warning; Adrian MacDonald and his sound collaborators for Resident Frequency; and Lysa Christie for her Predictive Platform.

Electric Sky is structured much like a hackathon so these projects may evolve a fair amount before we see them, but here are a few provocative images from the application submissions.

Join Falona Joy and Genevieve Tremblay for an inspiring session at our Vision Cubing Workshop. Dive into this transformative experience where you will learn a new contemplation and crafting technique called Vision Cubing! Drawing inspiration from the elements of Sun, Wind, and Water, this engaging session combines physical crafting with virtual design to help you envision a new possibility—a “seed concept” that you want to blossom in your life.

Workshop Overview:

Origami Crafting: Begin by creating a physical cube using Sonobe origami techniques. Each face of the cube will represent a different aspect of your personality and/or vision, encouraging a holistic reflection. Select symbols, colors, and patterns inspired by sun, wind, and water that resonate with what inspires you, grounds you, motivates you, celebrates your past accomplishments, and highlights your intuitive and intellectual talents.

Intention Object: During the workshop, select, customize, or make an object that symbolizes a personal intention or aspiration. This object will serve as a physical reminder of your goals and dreams and will be placed inside your cube. Optionally, this could literally be a seed that you place in soil and nurture daily with sun and water.

Virtual Cube Creation: After crafting your physical cube, you will create a virtual counterpart. This digital space allows you to step into your visions using the same symbols, colors, and patterns chosen during the origami session. It’s a unique way to deepen your engagement with the elements and create your own personal sanctuary to support your visioning practice.

Feng Shui Integration: Learn how to incorporate the Feng Shui principles of sun, wind, and water to enhance your cube’s design, further aligning it with your aspirations and the natural world.

About the Instructors:

Falona Joy is a social and civic entrepreneur based in Washington DC, dedicated to cultural and conservation initiatives. As the leader of SNP Strategies, Inc., she focuses on strengthening non-profits and enhancing their impact. Falona is also launching Joy Media, a new social enterprise using XR to extend collections beyond their walls and create meaningful cultural connections through immersive storytelling.

Genevieve Tremblay is a new media artist, researcher, and cultural entrepreneur whose work merges analog and digital realms. She is a member of SOIL Gallery, Passable and Sky Arts and an adjunct researcher at the Millennium Institute of Coastal Socio-Ecology in Chile, working on coastal community focused art + science projects. Her generative practice focuses on the ephemeral qualities of the natural world and our interactions with it, using emerging technologies to extend the art experience into public spaces in imaginative ways. 

Each year we orient our collaborative installations, workshops, and art show around a theme. We are pleased to announce for 2023 our theme is Circuit Tree.

We ask artists and tech creatives to dive deep into the nature of interconnected circuits in nature, electronics, and people. What is circuitry? The system by which energy or electricity circulates – whether in neurons, circuit boards, or trees! Through our arsenal of new art and tech mediums and tools, we will reimagine the movement of energy and information in interconnected ecosystems.

How it Works

For our group installations, 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.

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 seen at night.

Here are a few of our favorite photos from Electric Sky 2021, with the Game On theme! As you can see, there were a lot of great, interactive projects and some very lively workshops.

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