Darcy Neal is a new media artist, cyborg, maker, and educator. With a background in sculpture, electronics, and experimental music, their work has evolved over the years to explore a wide breadth of curiosities involving interactive installations and experimental circuitry. Continuing a lifelong interest in the arts, they originally explored the creation of unique audio and visual instruments in 2007 and developed custom electronic curiosities for clients such as Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips). After the discovery of the makerspace model in 2013, their work transformed as they incorporated new practices using rapid prototyping equipment.
In 2015, they co-founded LadyBrain Studios, where they designed bespoke machines that cross-pollinated the senses and developed educational workshops for makerspaces, galleries, and universities.
They are an ongoing teaching artist, focusing on electronics workshops at CETI at PSU, Make+Think+Code at PNCA (electronic performance design, soft circuits), and were a STEAM coordinator for immersive technologies at PCC, which operated as a supporting role for the creative coding program, VR/AR development, and 3D design applications. They now help bring other creators electronics projects to life as a crowdfunding project manager at Crowd Supply.
As years carried on, their interest shifted towards additive fabrication, and in 2019 they co-founded Trash Hackers Collective, where they have focused on harnessing the possibilities of transforming plastic waste into a creative medium through the creation of custom machinery, and they continue to build momentum and share knowledge via workshops and education around these newfound artistic explorations.