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The Cloud Room at Electric Forest Music Festival

Aug 14, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
The Cloud Room at Electric Forest Music Festival
Today we wanted to do a deep dive of our recently Cloud Room installation, which was a part of the famed Dream Emporium at Electric Music Forest Music Festival in Michigan back in June.
 
The concept was an LED Cloud room - with the entire ceiling and ground covered by clouds, making someone feel like they had just stepped into the sky. All of the clouds on the ceiling are laced with addressable LED lights, allowing them to shimmer and sparkle with mesmerizing lighting animations and effects.
 
We wanted the audience to feel a sense of wonder and calmness when spending time in the room, and stay for a while as they relax and connect with each other.
 

Festival go-ers enjoying the Cloud Room

Getting to the Cloud Room was no small feat. It's a secret space nestled inside a gigantic maze of rooms constructed inside an old Aircraft Hanger transformed into a multi hour immersive experience. To enter the room, you have to climb up a small ladder on top of the bed of a Monsters' Inc. inspired bedroom, somewhere inside the Emporium.

The entryway to the Cloud Room. You entered by climbing up one of the two ladders in the back up into the room.

Here's how we built it:
 
We broke the installation down into individual "cloud panels" that were about 6 feet by 3 feet wide. Each panel was made from a chicken wire mesh frame, which natural cotton polyester filling was attached to, which made up the cloud and the cloud's internal structure. On the inside of the cloud were LED strips, which were pressed up against the cloud so they could shine through the surface. 

The guts of a single LED Cloud. Notice the chicken wire mesh that gives the cloud it's shape, and the LED strips ziptied to the mesh.

All of the cloud panels were built on the ground, then lifted up and stapled to the ceiling one by one.

Installing the individual "Cloud Panels" onto the ceiling

After the physical installation was complete, the lighting programming was done - a process we call "designing the experience."
 
The vision was to have a 30 minute, looping audiovisual experience that mimicked an entire day, starting from Sunrise and Morning time, to Afternoon, a Thunderstorm, to Sunset and then finally Night Time. The soundscapes for each phase would match the lighting programming directly, really making the audience feel wholly immersed in a world of clouds.

Cameron, working on programming for the 30 minute audiovisual experience

Thousands of festival go-ers came through the room over the 4 day festival - we loved seeing their reactions, joy, and amazing connections they made while in the room.
 
It's always a bummer to have to tear down temporary installations we put so much time and energy into, but we're excited to have it back up at next year's festival!

The finished experience!

How Monos was Designed

Apr 04, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
How Monos was Designed
You got the origin story of Monos earlier this week - today we’re telling the next part of the Monos story, and diving deeper into its design. Missed Part 1? See it here.
 
Our Mechanical Engineer & Industrial Designer, Gene was able to take the concept Cameron and Ryan had lovingly conceived and developed into solid prototypes, and bring it to a fully fleshed out, manufacturable product. Here’s what he had to say about Monos:
 
Monos has a clean aesthetic that focuses on geometric balance and the 'square' axial symmetry. 
Showing off Monos' five separated illuminated surfaces 
We wanted this product to impart a visual sense of equilibrium and harmony through the use of simple, symmetrical shapes.
 
This energy makes the product feel natural. Like it inherently belongs and wasn’t made by an outside creator, but just appeared as an organic part of the space. The square motif is present practically everywhere in this product - imparting stability and grounded energy to the product and the space it's placed in.

The Monos Core - the LED base inside the outer diffusing shell. What we love about Monos is that it can be used with, or without the outer Diffuser.

I take pride in forming the concepts and driving execution behind many of the distinguishing aspects of Monos' presentation:
 
  • The hands-off IR sensor that allows contactless operation of the device is sure to be appreciated by everyone.
  • One of the signature design elements of the product are its individually-visible diffuser faces. What this means is that each of Monos’ five faces can be individually controlled, and set a distinct, separate color. 
  • I was able to integrate a “button” into the product that can be pressed just by squeezing the base. This kept our internal electrical system simple and compact, minding the tight space available.
  • This diffuser snaps onto the core of the product with ease. This allows people to easily enjoy Monos with, or without the diffuser. We also plan on designing and releasing different diffuser shapes down the road that can be easily interchanged and still be illuminated by the core of Monos.

A cross section of the Computer Design File of Monos, showing off the Outer Light Diffuser, the internal LED core (LEDs are the green dots) and the internal Circuit board in orange. 

Monos is clean and simple, but also has a great depth to it's refined design. I'm stoked to have contributed to this creation and look forward to seeing it shine its light all around the world. Check it out here.

~ The Fluora Team ~

How Monos Came to Be

Apr 03, 2025 Posted by: Aaron Oppenheimer
How Monos Came to Be
As we prepare for the upcoming Monos pre-sale launch, we wanted to share the story behind how our new product came to be.
 
You may know our story - if not, you can watch a video here.
 
After we finished working on the Fluora Mini, we were looking for new concepts for our next product.
 
Our co-worker and talented LED Artist, Cameron and his friend Ryan were simultaneously exploring product ideas with Ryan’s new 3d printer.
 
They wanted to make a really simple consumer friendly lamp that leveraged the immersive LED technology Cameron (and all of us) loved. 
 
They explored architectural designs that inspired them, specifically minimalist concepts and styles. Ultimately they aspired to make a lamp that embodied a minimalist ethos, but also was as cool and dynamic as possible.
 
One image they kept coming back to was the striking scene of the monolith from the opening of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This image became a North Star as Cameron and Ryan toiled with different designs for months, iterating and refining their vision for Monos. Hundreds of 3D prints of cubic diffuser form factors, and the internal shells were made. With each iteration, they attached LEDs with care onto the internal shell, then covered it with the diffuser and evaluated it, toiling over minor details like overall size, proportions, brightness, and producing evenly lit lamp faces. 
 
Finally, they got the concept to a point where they were excited to share it with the rest of the team, and presented it.
 
The Fluora team liked the product, thought it had potential and wanted to get it in front of customers. We brought it to a conference in New York City we were displaying Fluora at last Summer, where it became the star of the show. Once we saw Monos resonate with random people that knew nothing about LED art or Fluora, we knew it was a winner, and our next product was born.