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Psyche Inspired: "Psyche and the Lamp"

Laser cut and engraved acrylic, LED lights, 3D printed PLA

March 2024

The third of my works for Psyche Inspired, an internship with NASA's Psyche Mission. "Psyche and the Lamp" depicts a reimagining of Psyche's mythological betrayal of Eros. Here, the god Eros is replaced with a spinning 16 Psyche, and instead of an act of betrayal, the soon-to-be goddess Psyche is engaging in an act of self-discovery. Psyche’s curiosity reflects the curiosity of humanity as a whole as we attempt to discover our own planet’s core—its soul, if you will—by exploring 16 Psyche, the possible core of a planetesimal. You can learn more about the Psyche mission and Psyche Inspired at https://psyche.asu.edu/.

Video of asteroid (16) Psyche spinning. The asteroid is attached to a hand crank behind the lamp's opaque "wall." As the asteroid spins, the light of goddess Psyche slowly reveals its mysterious surface, symbolizing humanity's exploration of (16) Psyche.

The lamp under normal lighting.

Crank mechanism mockup.

As a requirement of the Psyche Inspired internship, I had to ship Psyche and the Lamp off to Arizona State University. I designed and CNC milled a cocoon of pink foam for the piece to ensure it survived the journey. It arrived safely, and is now displayed at the Psyche mission’s headquarters.

Packaging file mockup.

Packaging x-ray view (front).

Packaging x-ray view (back).

Psyche Inked

The original ink drawing I engraved into clear acrylic.

My first engraving test. The LEDs didn’t light up the entire engraving, so I made the linework into a gradient. This made the top of the engraving deeper than the bottom, allowing light to reach all the way up to the top.

The final engraving file. In addition to adding the gradient, I also tweaked tiny details like the pattern of her hair so that they read better at the size and resolution they were engraved at.

Concept sketches.

Concept sketches. My original idea was to create a field of spinning acrylic shards that would line up to reveal the goddess Psyche’s image. However, I felt that the idea put too much visual emphasis on discovering the goddess, so I revised the project into an LED lamp that would reveal the asteroid as it spun instead.

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