Sunbursts
A multimedia installation
The Sun is a colossal sphere of hydrogen and helium gas that holds itself together through the miraculous balance of its thermonuclear pressure and the pull of gravity.
It generates constantly abundant radiation, not only in ědaylightî, the extremely narrow electromagnetic waveband visible to human eyes.
The Sun radiates profusely in many more wavelengths, from infrared to ultraviolet and gamma rays (aside from emitting infinite neutrinos that can hardly be perceived).
Another extreme ultraviolet image: 195 A (Fe XII, 1.5 MK)
Solar magnetic activity (Sun spots, flares, coronal ejections), which peaked around the year 2001, is one of the most important cosmic cycles in our local universe.
PPT Slide
The Sun heats, illuminates and bathes with its wind all the planets captive to its gravity; yet only on Earth life developed and human consciousness is experiencing the Sunís Immanence.
Inspired by this vital and awesome entity, the installation SUNBURSTS will stimulate a fresh awareness of the Sun and render palpable our communion with it. (The images in the following brief description were made from partial models.)
In the middle of a darkened interior, a 10-foot sphere will be suspended, barely touching the floor and ceiling.
Covered with a fiberglass skin, the sphere will be supported inside by a geodesic framework, referring to the Sunís internal ěstructureî that is generated by its soundwave network.
On four sides of the sphere large voile screen-walls will be suspended, with enough space for people to walk around them as well as within them.
Four DVD projectors at the upper corners of the room will project on the screens computer-enhanced films of the Sunís surface taken by the Extreme UV Imaging Telescope of SoHO.
Four different soundtracks will accompany the projected films, mapping Sun data to sound and also using the Sunís ěmusicî -- subaudible noise of its surface turbulence.
The spectators moving around the huge sphere will cast their partial shadows on it and trigger through hidden sensors unpredictable brief events of light and sound bursts.
Dynamic, yet contemplative and spiritually transforming... tactile and sensorially fulfilling, yet immaterial and outworldly... experienced in real space-time, yet mysterious and ambiguous...
this installation will aim to combine the glory of light as perceived in Aghia Sophia ...
SUNBURSTS will recall the divine status that our self-generating star had in many past cultures, over the millennia of human history.
Credits: PowerPoint presentation and photographs of the installationís models: Athena Tacha Photographs of the Sun in extreme UV: Jean-Francois Hochedez Sources of other photographs of the Sun: NASA TRACE SXT/Yohkoh Model of geodesic structure: Stefano Marrano Sound-track samples: Joshua Fried
Email: someone@microsoft.com
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