The launch of the Arduino UNO R4 marks a huge leap forward for our community. For us, it’s also the chance to celebrate the people who bring our ecosystem to life with their bright ideas, radiant enthusiasm, and shining insight.
That is how the UNO R4 Stars blog post series began: to highlight makers who have not only created amazing projects with Arduino, but who are giving back to the community by sharing as they go and helping others make anything they wish.
We invite you to discover each profile, hoping you might find a North Star to navigate around an expanding galaxy or venture into completely new universes.
After competing as a national figure skater in her native Canada and attracting over 1 million views as a Minecraft YouTuber – all by the age of 12! – the good-vibes powerhouse that is Tigris Li now invites us all to explore our most human inner workings. Her goals? To help everyone develop heightened emotional intelligence, and to educate and empower a new generation of innovators. She does so through her eclectic practice as an artist and creative technologist – leveraging 3D design and every tool making has to offer, to create experiences that spark conversations about our relationships with technology, each other, and ourselves.
Indeed, she says the project that best represents her is a “playfully absurd” installation she built in 2021, focusing on the very concept of love: the Incu-dater touches on the speculative future by welcoming couples in a futuristic pod, where they can assess the emotional status of their relationship and, based on the results, are prescribed a recommended dose of oxytocin to compensate any imbalances.
More in general, Li was always excited about turning imagination into reality by building physical objects: “Being a maker today is a very radical thing. It’s very radical to be independent against consumer and commercial objects, to be able to create something on your own that stems from you and your individuality.”
And today, she is able to inspire millions of followers to do the same, by sharing her projects online. Check out her latest one: a custom DJ controller based on the UNO R4 Minima and loads of fun retro style.
We asked Li, “What’s your favorite part of the UNO R4?”
- The 12×8 LED matrix in the UNO R4 Wifi, because it allows her to build “hardware as an intimate art experience which you can hold in the palm of your hand.”
- The ESP32 module (also featured in the WiFi variant), great for wireless connectivity.
- How the entire Arduino ecosystem is able to transcend borders and accessibility limitations, to offer new opportunities for exploration and connection to everyone.
Li is currently based in London but of course you can catch up – and keep up – with her many projects anywhere in the world: just check out her portfolio on her website, or join the thousands already following her on Instagram and X!
