Once again my good friend Dave “Big Dog” Gould and I entered the Jell-O Mold Contest at the Gowanus Studio Space, we went with a Pacman theme.
Dog and I went with a gimmick this year, glow in the dark Jell-O. Well, glow in the dark under a black light anyway. If you use tonic water instead of regular water in gelatin, it will glow under a black light. The effect is pretty cool, but there are two major draw backs: it is hard to see the effect in the daylight and the Jell-O tastes very tonic-y.
To get around these issues we built a small arcade style diorama, to shade the natural light and house the black light, and we embraced the tonic flavor by adding gin, vodka, and other fruit juices (Jell-O shots anyone). Sadly, the heat was an issue for us for a second year in a row. Our power pellets were puddles in a matter of minutes.
Lucky for the spectators there were many other creative entries. My personal favorite was the “The Resistor Jeltone”, an edible, working, gelatin-based toy piano by team NYC Resistor: Ranjit Bhatnagar, Astrida Valijorsky, Mimi Hui, and Catarina Mota.
This event has grown so much in just three years. There were over 30 entrants, hundreds of spectators, press, and even CBS Sunday Morning was there filming. Fantastic job Michelle and Nadia.