SOLAR COLLECTOR: The Interactive Light Sculpture
Late last week, the Waterloo Regional Operations Centre in Cambridge, Ontario, launched a uniqe new public art sculpture that collects solar energy and promotes human interaction. Solar Collector is a collaboration between the community and the sun. This unique artwork of 12 shafts “gathers human expression and solar energy during the day, then brings them together each night in a performance of flowing light.”
Each shaft is orientated to reflect the angles of the sun throughout the year. “The tallest shaft is perpendicular to the sun at winter solstice, when the sun is low in the sky. The flattest shaft faces the high sun at summer solstice.” You can even interact with the Solar Collector from your own home via the web.
Using simple web-based controls, people are able to compose wave-based patterns along the shafts with pulsating lights. The software, designed by Gorbet Design, Inc, allows users to play with simple sliders to create the patterns and then submit them to be a part of the next performance.
After the day’s patterns are displayed, a series of global patterns are composed from all the patterns ever created. As the evening extends, the shafts slowly use up thier energy and fade out one by one. The length of these performances are directly related to the weather and the seasons.
Source: designboom.com Via: Inhabitat
