Artiflora is a self-operating lamp that responds to its surrounding environment and is meant to artificially mimic the behaviors of living flowers with electronics. This project was created to play with the ways in which we interact with the items in our homes by giving a lamp some "autonomy". Rather than being turned on with a direct switch, Artiflora is designed to respond to indirect stimulus such as movement or dim lighting to give the illusion that it is a living thing.
Due to its modular characteristics, prototyping and testing for this piece was done largely in a CAD program in order to save time and materials. The "spine" or stem of the flower required very careful, detail-oriented assembly so that every piece would fall into place when in motion.
Two physical prototypes were made, one out of white acrylic to study the rotational behavior of the design, and another out of wood as proof of concept for the pulley system and electronics integration. The final piece was made by doubling the dimensions of the prototype. The body was laser cut out of wood and assembled carefully with glue. A medium step motor pulling several yards of thin string through the middle of the "spine" creates the erecting and drooping motions.
