flux: One to One is a wall-mounted installation that consists of jars that capture voices and play them back. The goal was to promote fleeting, intimate connections that could be shared with strangers. Like a firefly trapped in a jar, messages become trapped once they are spoken into the jar. When another person comes along to open it, they can release the message after which it is gone forever.

The One to One installation includes 20 jars, each embedded with their own CNC fabricated wooden mount, and a laser cut core that contains a custom made printed circuit board, LEDs, speaker and microphone. When a jar has no message trapped in it, it is dark and the LEDs aren’t lit. When a jar has a message trapped inside it, the LEDs light up in a twinkling pattern. In order to leave a message, you open a jar and speak into it. To release a message, open a lit jar and it will play it back.

I was responsible for designing the printed circuit board, fabrication the internal jar construction and jar mount. A more detailed report on the process can be found here: flux One to One – Elwin Lee