Attic Windows is a collaboratively constructed quilt of light. Each colorful paper square, designed and built by middle school students from Anansi Charter school, will glow in response to touch. Left alone, the piece’s illumination will gradually evolve, each square responding to how bright or dim its neighbors are in a pattern inspired by complex natural systems like bee hives and ant hills.

Generously Sponsored by Andrea Szekeres

About the artist: Leah Buechley is a designer, engineer, and educator whose work explores intersections and juxtapositions–of “high” and “low” technologies, new and ancient materials, and masculine and feminine making traditions. She is a leading developer in the fields of electronic textiles and paper electronics.

Her inventions include the LilyPad Arduino. From 2009-2014, she was a professor at the MIT Media Lab where she founded and directed the High-Low Tech group. She has been an invited speaker at leading technology, art, and learning events around the world including TED, ISEA, FabLearn, and SXSW. Her work has been exhibited internationally in venues including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ars Electronica Festival, and the Exploratorium, and has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Popular Science, and Wired.

Leah received a PhD in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a BA in physics from Skidmore College. At both institutions she also studied dance, theater, fine art, and design.