If you live on the East Coast you’re probably stuck inside this weekend, bored out of your mind thanks to the most annoying Jonas since Nick. If you’re lucky enough to still have power you’re probably binge watching How To Make A Murderer on Netflix, playing video games, or heaven forbid, actually reading a book. But if you’re looking for something else to do you might want to consider Living Ink: the World’s first ever time lapse ink. Doodling will never be the same again.
Made from algae this ink is, well, as the name suggests, alive. After drawing something in several distinct phases you place your creation inside of a protective greenhouse of sorts and over the course of a few days your intentions will reveal themselves.
Gizmag explains in further detail how it all works:
“{The ink] can be applied to paper with a pen, a paintbrush or even a printer and is visible at first, so the artist can see what’s being created, and then fades after a few minutes. The ink comes in two varieties, one that’s fast growing (which shows as pink at first) and one slower (that’s initially in blue).
Once the doodling is done, the work is placed inside a portable greenhouse containing nutrients and moisture, then popped in a solid wood stand and placed near a source of light such as sunlight or the glow from a table lamp.
Over the course of a day or so, the algae in the fast ink start to reproduce and show up on the paper first, followed by the slow-growing ink over the next couple of days. When all is revealed, the paper can be removed from the greenhouse and the artwork put on display. The designers compare the process to “gardening on paper.”
Essentially what this means is that you can now easily send hidden messages to friends and loved ones. Or cleverly tell a joke that at first sets up the punch line and then delivers it. Perhaps one day we’ll even see Hallmark birthday cards made from Living Ink.
Until then, if you want to learn more be sure to check out their Kickstarter page.
Is Living Ink the Greatest Idea Ever?
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