Solar Power / Solar System
collaboration with Andy Holtin
Solar Power/Solar System is a project designed to explore our view of the natural world from within our built and technology-mediated environment. Far from being a simplistic
or exclusively critical view of this relationship, this project seeks to bring a piece of the
natural world back into our experience through some of the same tools and technology
that contribute to our distance from it.
The sunlight collected by the solar panels during the day is recycled to power the LEDs which illuminate the orbs and cast light strongly onto the back of the PVC panel, which has been drilled with a pattern of small holes to replicate the actual night sky of April 14, 2018, at 9:00pm, as would be seen from Baltimore, Maryland. Each hole or star is also fitted with a small segment of fiber optic cable to transmit the light from the back to the front of the panel more completely and increase visibility and luminosity of the star field. In a city of lights and power, the Solar
Power/Solar System imports the lost and subtle light of the stars, while, as a light emitting
installation in a festival of light installations, it also contributes to that loss.
Viewers are invited to stand, sit, or lay in the astroturf and gaze at the actual stars that would be visible if they were not hidden by our own network of lights that make city navigation possible.