Final Project
Still Here
A curtain that insists you leave
Still Here is a curtain that nudges you to step away when you’ve been in the same space for too long. It’s built around the experience of getting so absorbed in a project that taking a break gets pushed aside and self-care is neglected. When timers or notifications are often simply too easy to ignore. The curtain first is calm and easy to dismiss, but over time it becomes more insistent, shifting from subtle color changes to increasingly intense light patterns until it’s hard to stay put.
It takes the form of a 90s bead curtain, pulling from personal childhood memories of early prized possessions, bought with scarce money, when objects felt important and worth protecting. That familiarity gets turned against you. The curtain can become “distressed” over time, tapping into the tendency to care for others more easily than for yourself. A kind of Tamagotchi—like experience, but one that tricks you into self-care by making you take care of it.
Britney Spears, Robert Sebree 2000
The system detects when someone actually passes through and leaves the room, using motion sensing and a magnetic field sensor to distinguish a person from something smaller like a cat. If no exit is registered, it escalates; if no movement is detected at all, it settles into a resting state. Passing through is rewarded, returning is acknowledged, and over time the system logs this data locally, allowing it to be combined with mood or medication tracking to build insight into longer-term patterns.
System overview
The curtain consists of multiple flexible strands, each containing a series of small light nodes (LEDs). These are controlled by a microcontroller and respond to sensor input.
- Input: magnetic field for movement of the curtain, motion sensors to detect entering and exiting , some sort of light patterns
- Processing: a microcontroller translates this input into light patterns
- Output: LEDs embedded in the strands create a dynamic, semi-transparent display
Fabrication and design research
The design draws inspiration from the 90s classic bead curtain, the aim is not to get the design as close to the original, but it would be nice if the reference is obvious for those whom remember the original all too well. Below I describe what I've learned from during Fab Academy while researching how I would go about making an interactive version of this object.
The OG bead curtain for design reference
Week 5
In week 5 I explored this design direction by making a small 3D-printed bead curtain test. I was interested in the logic of solid beads becoming flexible once connected, and used the assignment to experiment with a faceted bead shape, a rod running through it, and later a simple linked mechanism that could wiggle a bit more like a curtain.
Week 8
In week 8 I learned how to design and produce custom PCBs, which is directly relevant for embedding light into the curtain. I worked on boards that could drive multiple LEDs and got familiar with the full process from schematic to milling and testing. This gave me a better understanding of how to control several light points at once, and how to think about distributing electronics across a system rather than treating it as a single unit.
Week 9
During week 9 I focused on input devices that could be useful for my final project. Unfortunately the magnetic field sensors got delayed in the mail, so for this week I played with a motion and flex sensor instead. For the motion sensor I build a little PCB with a microcontroller socket and a LED that lights up when motion is detected.
Inspiration & References
This project is inspired by projects like Random International’s Rain Room, Studio Drift and United Visual Artists and many more. What I find interesting in these works is how they use light and repetition to create a spatial experience you can move through.
Within Fab Academy there are a lot of projects that deal with LEDs, sensors and interaction, usually in the form of panels or wearables. While not directly similar, they were helpful for thinking about how to build a system with multiple light points. Examples include work like Juliana Lozano — Kinetic Curtain, Adriana Mexicano — wearable vest with proximity sensor + LEDs + optical fiber, Nicole Bakker — The Airable, wearable with LED feedback based on sensed data and Diane Walsh — felt artwork + large LED array.
Other ideas
Just cause it's fun, here's some ideas that didn't quite make it:
- pimp my cargo bike
- hand/body size fidget spinner for my neurodivergent babes, other stimming/pressure devices (or like a wapperman machine?!)
- cat doorbell (send to Ricardo Marques)
- e-ink keyboard
- thermal fax for smartphones
- wearable displaying satellite data