The world is such a big world. On our mother planet, we share 148940000 km² of land surface with nearly 7.7 billion people. But it is also such a small world. It is small enough for us to share happiness and pain together.

According to the theory of 6 degrees of separation, all people would only have 6 social connections away from each other. Throughout history, we found that we humans love to make connections. 10 thousand years or even longer ago, the only way of communication was through yelling. Then there were characters and letters in different languages allowing us to write to leave and save something. Then we have papers, we have prints, we have phones and now we have the internet. But what remains the same in thousands of years is the relationships.

Human relationships, especially through the chaotic year of 2020, have become even more important. Only treasure the connection and bond between people after being away from each other for so long.

My project will have a small installation using Arduino which is a codable microcontroller for digital devices and Neopixel LED Light. The light will blink, fade, change color, and turn on and off in order to represent the type of relationships between each individual couple as they connect through the 6 degrees of separation. I would say that color is a very objective idea, and to me, I may think of romantic relationships as a pink color, or a good friendship in a bright warm color. And when a connection is broken, the led can fade or turn into gray or black. Then I convert my opinion on color to the storyboard.

Through this project, I want to find the beauty of the unique bond between people. I want to dig through the history of how we are able to develop from small tribes to different cultures and societies. I want to remind people even though bad things happened, there are thighs that are deep in our blood that remain simple and the same.

I think it’s all about people. The connections between people keep changing as technologies and societies develop. For me, I can see the connection between wires and sensors as a connection between people. What is more, I think it means a lot to me to achieve such a warm theme using digital art instead of traditional form.