Last weekend I collaborated with artist Yann Seznec (aka the Amazing Rolo) on a UV glove which allows the wearer to draw on a wall that has been covered in UV paint. This was a development on some work created by Yann for the exhibition Rough Cut Nation at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (check out Yann's blog!). Here's a video showing a bit of the glove being made and then some shots of it in action at the exhibition:

UV LED Glove for Rough Cut Nation from The Amazing Rolo on Vimeo.

The glove is made from an ordinary Thinsulate black fleece glove from a second hand shop. In between the lining and the outer layer I connected the battery and then externally attached the resistor and two UV LEDs on the index finger. The LEDs are activated by touching the thumb and middle finger together. Initially we created a glove using a reclaimed switch, but this wasn't really suitable for use with fabric and after a few two many demos at a gig and then some time languishing in my handbag on Saturday night it very quickly broke.

We resolved the problem by creating a fabric switch using some embroidered (very badly, what would my old school teacher say?!) conductive thread. The two X points can be touched together to create a circuit. This is much more durable because there aren't any moving parts which can be broken. Obviously the glove itself although functional is not very asthetically pleasing, I can imagine creating a much nicer effect with some better embroidary and homemade gloves (watch this space).

Today was the last day of the exhibition but you can find out more about it on the gallery blog. Thanks to Patrick Hickey at Nipht Technologies for the UV LEDs. As with lots of projects like this the glove was made with the sage advice of Fashioning Technology!