Interactive light organ brightens Homewood

Students play with Persephone, a light and sound organ, at the ice rink in February 2023 Interactive light organ brightens Johns Hopkins Persephone, which debuted at the Lighting of the Quads in December, is the product of first-ever collaboration between the Digital Media Center and Makerspace. The Lighting of the Quads and the annual pop-up ice rink bring extra sparkle to the Homewood campus during the darkness of late fall and winter, but this year both events provided some extra wattage, thanks to Persephone: Four Seasons, a fully interactive light and sound organ created by Johns Hopkins University staff and students. The first-ever collaboration between the Digital Media Center and the Makerspace , Persephone is the result of a semester-long shared project led by Jason Charney , a composer, sound artist, and multimedia specialist for the DMC, and Luke Ikard , a multidisciplinary visual artist and manager of the Makerspace. As active members of Baltimore's arts scene, Charney and Ikard were aware of each other's work before they became Hopkins colleagues. Ikard, who joined the university in January 2022 to oversee the Makerspace's reopening after a two-year pandemic pause, was drawn to the role for its synthesis with his woodworking and sculpture practice. Ikard's arrival motivated Charney, who has been with the DMC for nearly three years, to propose a collaborative project to establish an official connection between their offices. "In the past, the DMC did some design-and-build installations for the Lighting of the Quads using our own makerspace facilities in the Mattin Center, before we moved to our new location on Charles Street," Charney says.