perpetual tropical sunshine
14 December 2005
a 'displaced architectural space' which is out of sync both temporally & climatically. this large screen, composed of 300 150W infrared light bulbs, transposes the real-time state of the summer sun on the 23rd South parallel. the light bulbs diffuse a light & heat video sequence of the sun between 600 & 1000nm, according to the actual climatic conditions of the tropic of Capricorn.
each time the diffused sun gets out of the camera field, the system seeks a new active sun in another place & in a different time zone. the image of this active sun, diffused by the 300 infra-red lamps, heats the space located in front of it.
see also presence & mix-m.org. more information & visuals after the break. [fabric.ch|thnkx Christophe!]
air pollution helium balloon span> brand-based collaborative tag clouds span> tkaap video tracking interface span> BMW kinetic sculpture span> flokoon visual search span> pulsating emotion organism span> cinema redux film mosaics span> laser-cut sound analysis sculptures span> caffeine usage arcs span> zoomii visual amazon store span> mapping scientific citations span> collective prediction network span> all the water in the world span> reflect conversation table span>
the installation was developed for the Lyon Festival of Light 2005, France. the 'tropical' software was specially developed by fabric | ch for this project. it retrieves live weather information from internet, selects randomly a sunny tropical city, launches the corresponding video sequence of the sun & through video analysis transmits in real time the intensity of light to 300 infrared light bulbs individually. the interface between computer & infrared screen is made by a DMX 512 system which controls 300 digital dimmers (one for each light bulb). each light consists of a 150W infrared light bulb.
the space is thus 'informed' by the tropical sun, defined by heat, distant & time zones, to become a displaced & stimulated tropicality.

final set up in Lyon (France) - december 7, 2005, 4pm GMT+1.
(image: Milo Keller)

opening in Lyon (France) - december 8, 2005, 6.22pm GMT+1, tropical sun from Windhoek (Namibia), 6.22pm GMT+1, sunny.
(image: Milo Keller)

Opening in Lyon (F) - december 8, 2005, 7.07pm GMT+1, tropical sun from Brasilia (Brazil), 3.07pm GMT-3, mostly sunny.
(image: Milo Keller)

wall detail


