Conductive Ink

Gloria Martinez-Granados

“Ink is an age-old medium, yet it’s keeping up with changing times. It’s long been used in pens, of course, and more recently in printed cartridges, but now it’s also being mixed to print lightweight circuit, sensors and switches”. Anne Eisenberg

Within growing technologies there are new materials for artist to add to their creative tools. I enjoy using different mediums to create artwork and experiment. A material that I recently learned about and would like to create artwork with is conductive ink. With this medium I want to create electrical circuits to make interactive artworks.

Conductive ink is made up of electrical conducers, such as graphene and silver flakes, that allow for electrical circuits to be drawn and connected. It's liquid form allows the material to be applied on a variety of surfaces. The downside is that it is not water resistant and can wash off. On the other hand, it is a more cost effective method than to building traditional circuits made by using copper.

There are different types of inks, one of the most main stream is Bare Conductive Ink.  It was created as a research project by a group of students from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London. However, you don't have to buy the ink. You can also make it yourself as shown in this DIY tutorial with the use of a few low cost and easy to get ingredients. 

In these videos we see the ways that ink is applied to projects. By creating interactive systems this book comes to life with the direction of the user. Lumobok is an interactive book that uses conductive ink for its analog triggers.

[DT2140@KTH] Lumobok from Nadia on Vimeo.

"Awake" An Interactive Painting by Sofia Aronov allows the viewer to interact with the canvas.

Finally, this blog shows a DIY inspired guide to recreate an interactive painting like the one by artist Sofia Aronov. And now that we have some instruction on making our inks as well as inspiration from examples made by other creators we can make our own.  

Works Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conductive_ink.
Aronov, S. (n.d.). https://www.sofiaaronov.com/awake. Retrieved from https://www.sofiaaronov.com/awake
Eisenberg, A. (2012, June 30). Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/electronic-ink-is-replacing-bulky-wiring-in-products.html: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/electronic-ink-is-replacing-bulky-wiring-in-products.html
Gerard, C. (2018, April 17). Retrieved from Medium.com: https://medium.com/@devdevcharlie/how-to-make-an-interactive-canvas-with-conductive-ink-and-animated-projections-d3f6abf73655
Things, B. M. (2017, September 12). YouTube. Retrieved from YouTube.com: https://youtu.be/phEke_LZJlk
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