Flatsun

A circular display that simulates the turbulence at the surface of the Sun using mathematical equations. The piece reacts to the presence of the public by varying the speed and type of animation displayed. If no one is in front of the piece the turbulence slows down and eventually turns off. As the built-in camera detects people more solar flares are generated and the fake Sun shows more perturbation and activity. At 140 cm diameter, Flatsun is exactly a billion times smaller than the real Sun. The piece consists of custom-made panels with 60,000 red and yellow LED lights, a computer with 8 processing cores, a camera with a pinhole lens and a mechanically engineered aluminium, steel and glass structure that pivots for maintenance. A single knob lets the collector set the brightness of the piece and turn it on and off.

General info

Spanish name:
Solplano
Year of creation:
2011
Keywords:
indoor, tracker, generator, lights.
Technique:
custom-made LED screen, computerized surveillance tracking system, fluid dynamic algorithms (Navier Stokes, fractal flames, reaction diffusion and Perlin noise), aluminium, stainless steel, glass
Power:
120W at 110 or 240V
Dimensions:
142 centimeters diameter, 17 centimeters depth
Weight:
90 kilograms
Edition:
6 copies + 1 AP copy

Exhibitions


Credits

  • Gideon May - Hardware
  • Conroy Badger - Software
  • Sebastien Dallaire, Pierre Fournier, Sebastien Rose, Guillaume Tremblay - Production

Links


Bibliography