/ Creative tech

Interactive Word Wall

Turning poetry into a large-scale interactive experience through light, fabrication, and physical input

The Word Wall combines illuminated words, physical buttons, custom electronics, and audience interaction.

The Word Wall is a large interactive installation that turns language into a physical interface. Visitors create poetic sequences by pressing illuminated words, combining reading, touch, light, and playback into a shared public experience.

The project required the interaction model, physical interface, electronics, fabrication, and installation to work as one system. Its 6' x 6' aluminum face contains 128 individually interactive words supported by custom buttons, lighting, wiring, and computer-controlled playback.

Project details

Project type: Interactive installation
Focus: Creative technology, physical interaction, electronic art
Materials: Aluminum, plexiglass, LEDs, switches, wiring, custom hardware
Role: Concept, design, fabrication, electronics coordination, installation

/ 01

Challenge

The challenge was to turn a grid-controller-inspired idea into an installation that people could approach and understand without instruction, while also making the physical system durable and practical enough for repeated public interaction.

Key challenges included:

Designing a physical interface that people could understand quickly.
Creating 128 individual interactive word buttons.
Making the piece durable enough for repeated public use.
Learning and combining unfamiliar fabrication and electronics processes.
Managing scope, manual labor, transport, wiring, and installation.
Turning poetry, light, and physical interaction into one coherent experience.

An early lit view of the Word Wall showing the scale, lettering, and physical button layout.

/ 02

Role

I conceived the project and led the design and fabrication process.

My work included:

Developing the concept and interaction model.
Creating the 128-word list and front panel layout.
Editing the stencil lettering for durability and readability.
Researching and sourcing components.
Designing and refining the button mechanism.
Coordinating soldering and LED assembly sessions with volunteers.
Working through wiring, fabrication, and installation details.
Presenting and installing the piece at events.

/ 03

Approach

Designed the word system

The front panel required 128 words that could evoke a Pacific Northwest theme and combine into poetic sequences.

I tested combinations by physically arranging printed words into phrases and sentence-like structures, then refined the vocabulary based on how flexibly the words could combine.

This helped make the language itself function as part of the interaction system rather than simply as content placed on top of it.

A 3D planning view helped define the structure, scale, and physical layout before fabrication.

Designed for interaction

The interaction needed to communicate itself physically.

Visitors had to understand that the words were pressable, receive immediate feedback from the object, and be able to build sequences without learning a separate control system.

Each word became a physical button, with a spring-mounted plexiglass panel behind the aluminum face. Pressing a word triggered a switch and activated the system.

Testing helped validate how the illuminated words would feel when pressed and viewed up close.

Solved fabrication constraints

The aluminum panel was cut using an industrial waterjet process. The lettering needed to use a stencil-style font so internal letter shapes could remain attached.

I modified the font for durability, consistency, readability, and safer physical interaction.

Built custom lighting

Each word was lit from behind using LED strips and custom soldered assemblies.

Because word lengths varied, the lighting system required custom solutions for different word sizes while keeping the power requirements consistent.

LED lighting tests helped determine how to create an even glow behind words of different sizes.

Integrated unfamiliar technologies into one working system

The project required me to work across processes I had not previously combined at this scale, including industrial cutting, electronics, custom button mechanisms, soldering, wiring, structural fabrication, and transport planning.

Each constraint affected the others. Changes to lettering influenced fabrication, word size affected lighting, the irregular layout complicated wiring, and the physical interaction had to remain understandable despite the mechanical complexity behind it.

The electronics and wiring required custom solutions because the word layout was intentionally irregular rather than a standard button grid.

/ 04

Outcome

The Word Wall turned an abstract concept into a functioning large-scale interactive installation that people could approach, touch, and use to construct their own poetic sequences.

The final system brought together 128 physical word controls, illumination, custom electronics, playback behavior, and a fabricated aluminum interface into a single public experience.

The project was partially funded by Ignition Northwest, received additional support through a Seattle artist brunch series, and was installed as a work-in-progress at Critical Massive.

In use, the piece encouraged direct participation rather than passive viewing. Children and adults interacted with the words, built sequences, and watched the wall replay their selections in changing combinations. The physical controls made an abstract language system tangible and playful.

Beyond the installation itself, the project demonstrated that a concept spanning interaction design, electronics, fabrication, and software behavior could be developed into a working public experience through iterative prototyping and hands-on problem solving.

What this work demonstrates

This work demonstrates the ability to design an experience across digital behavior, physical controls, electronics, fabrication, and public interaction rather than treating those elements as separate problems.

It required interaction design, system thinking, rapid learning, physical prototyping, coordination with collaborators, and practical problem solving across a large custom-built installation.

It is especially relevant to experiential products, connected hardware, public interfaces, creative technology, and projects where digital behavior has to work through a physical object.

Designing for a scalable second version

Since building the original installation, I have continued thinking through how the system could be redesigned to make future versions easier to fabricate, assemble, customize, and maintain.

A second-generation approach would replace many of the one-off fabrication decisions with a more modular system. That could allow the same core interaction to scale to smaller or larger installations while supporting customized word sets, names, themes, or other content for different environments or buyers.

The goal is to move from a highly custom-built installation toward a repeatable platform that could support multiple sizes and configurations without rebuilding the underlying system each time.

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