sun calendar

Sun Calendar, made of a rectangular grid of square reflective photovoltaic panels, represents linear time by mirroring a fragmented image of a historic house across the street, and cyclical time by representing the sun's rhythms in the shape of its curve, where each panel faces the sun optimally according to the seasons. Its pixelated appearance refers to the fragmented sense of time we experience in the digital world. In addition, the LED lights replay the daily movement of the sun after dark, underlining slow biological sun rhythms.

As opposed to the lightning speed of information transfer on digital screens, this photovoltaic screen operates according to the slow passage of the sun in its energy transfer. It engages us in a slower type of perceptive process that may allow the mind to rest in a moment of reflection as opposed to reaction. The duration of multi-sensual experience of solar rhythms allows us to connect with nature’s clock, strengthening mental apprehension of biology.

Resembling a typical monthly wall calendar that is divided into squares, the screen makes palpable the overlapping of the passage of the sun with a clock-based calendar of months and hours. The calendar/screen takes the form of a three-dimensional field consisting of a slowly moving grid of shadow patterns and larger evolving geometric shapes of projected sunlight. This diurnal and seasonal schedule of sun diagrams operates according to a cyclical notion of time. Waking and sleeping rituals that take place around the bedroom hallway reinforce these cycles. The lights will be programmed to shine faintly during the periods of dawn and dusk, and more brightly during full darkness. Also, the memory of the repetitive and predictable yearly sun passage is represented by the curved shape of the screen based on optimum energy collection throughout the year.