LED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up Burning Man
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LED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up Burning Man | Unde... http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/aurora/
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LED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up
Burning Man
By Hugh Hart June 28, 2011 | 12:43 pm | Categories: Art, Design and Fashion
hughhart · 882 followers Block…
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1 of 9 9/19/11 8:03 PM
LED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up Burning Man | Unde... http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/aurora/
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Self-taught sculptor Charlie Gadeken likes to play with fire, as evidenced by his blazing body of
blowtorch artwork. But for his latest piece, Aurora, the San Francisco-based kinetic wizard has
chosen LEDs to light up a massive tree that's programmed to mutate colors from day to night.
How ambitious is Gadeken? Here's his description of Aurora, a sculpture reminiscent of Avatar's
bioluminescent Tree of Souls that will be unveiled at this year's Burning Man festival: "It's a weeping
willow tree that's 35 feet tall with a 45-foot canopy," Gadeken told Wired.com in an e-mail. "During
the daytime, 5,000 copper leaves will flicker from light to dark, shimmering as the breeze travels
across the surface of the tree. At night, the 30,000 LEDs that line the tree will light up, change color
and make the tree shimmer in a completely different way."
Gadeken, a high-school dropout who created 500-foot-wide paintings before getting into flame-based
art 15 years ago, wants to find a permanent home for Aurora after its Burning Man debut this August.
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For the year-round iteration of the piece, he said, LEDs would follow the seasons, "changing from
green in the spring through the autumn colors to winter white."
Gadeken launched a Kickstarter campaign Tuesday to raise funds for the all-seasons Aurora. Check
the gallery above to learn more about Aurora and Gadeken's previous experiments in light and sound.
Above:
Aurora Mock-Up
Concept: "Aurora is inspired in part by my 3-year-old daughter," Gadeken says. "It's the ultimate
fairy tree that brings a little magic into our world. I wanted to create something that is amazing,
fantastic and real." Block…
Specs: Made from 5,000 feet of pipe, 15 sheets of copper, 30 sheets of 4-foot-by-8-foot steel and 10
sheets of quarter-inch plate, Aurora has interactive buttons that control the patterns of colors on the
tree. See how it will work in the video below.
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See Also:
Fire Organ Fuels Trimpin’s Concentration Camp Opera, Gurs Zyklus
Gallery: Fire Arts Festival Opens in Blaze of Glory
Fire Artist Mixes Propane, High Voltage
Block…
Hugh Hart covers movies, television and assorted pop culture oddities
for Wired.com. He also writes twisted pop songs on GarageBand.
Follow @hughhart and @theunderwire on Twitter.
Tags: Aurora, Burning Man 2011, Charlie Gadeken, fire art
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Kenneth Ellis
Speaking of kinetic...Author Kenneth Adrian Ellis has a 4-part super
power that he reveals to readers in: A Kinetic Person's Power, Sub
Titled: Voice Command Ability! *NOTE* This author holds a Certificate Of
Copyright from the Library Of Congress for video footage on which he
performs his power...so this ability is documented! Visit the following 4
4 of 9 9/19/11 8:03 PMLED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up Burning Man | Unde... http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/aurora/
links please!(1st) www.YouTube.com ,search: Kenneth A. Ellis, to view
the Professional Author Display Video on You Tube. Most veiwed on 2
channels on there! (2nd) www.prlog.org/10285981 , to read the press
release !(3rd) www.BlogTalkRadio.com/Strategi... ,then click on
episode: A Kinetic Person's Power by Kenneth Adrian Ellis, to listen to
the 15 minute spot on Blog Talk Radio! (4th)
www.Tinyurl.com/author-kenneth... ,to visit the Face Book Author Fan
Page...Become a FAN! Thank You!
Block…
enthasys
The pictures let you see the concept and the atmosphere it will create. Due to the scale of the
festival people-land I hope the spectators be amazed with this out of space site created.
dAVe burlingame
Actually, fuck all burn victims. It's like having sex with crispy bacon. Or a sunburnt Kevin
Bacon.
Adam Bailey
This will not be done by the burn.
Charlie Gadeken
Would you care to make a bet on this? You name a number and we will gladly take that
wager. We could use the money to cover our costs. :)
dAVe burlingame
5 of 9 9/19/11 8:03 PMLED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up Burning Man | Unde... http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/aurora/
Fuck burning man.
Dug
Your A dick
HowmaNoid
Block…
Somewhere, in a dimly lit editing room, James Cameron is on the phone with his lawyers
talking about royalty payments....
Charlie Gadeken
I think we we will be ok on this one. But if you are out there Mr. Cameron and you
would like to make a donation to help this project, we would certainly appreciate it.
John
Some of the posters are concentrating on nit picky negatives. To me, it sounds like it will be
beautiful and magic on the playa. Hope to experience it on black rock desert this year!
Clement
Too much avatar
Mark Sartor
One day I'd like to attend the BUrning Man festival..
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Turtle Heart
Yawn. Boring. Good job of making technology boring and even more boring.
DrKnowNothing
Very cool artwork. An issue with some of the details though: Block…
"Made from 5,000 feet of pipe, 15 sheets of copper, 30 sheets of 4-foot-by-8-foot steel and 10
sheets of quarter-inch plate, Aurora..."
Bill of materials:
(5000) linear feet of copper pipe, diameter unknown
(15) sheets of copper, dimensions of a "sheet" unknown, thickness unknown
(30) 4'x8' sheets of steel, thickness unknown
(10) sheets of steel, dimensions of a "sheet" unknown, 1/4" thickness
Why bother providing so many details if they are uselessly incomplete?
Yes, we can probably assume that all the sheets are 4'x8', but why tell us the number of sheets
of two different thickness of steel, but only provide one of those thickness dimensions?
Charlie Gadeken
Ok here are a few more details..
(5000) linear feet of copper pipe, diameter unknown
---mild steel not copper, copper would be nice but a little out of our budget..
5000 sounds a bit much closer to 4000 feet, it is made from a combination of 3" and 2"
schedule 40 pipe
(15) sheets of copper, dimensions of a "sheet" unknown, thickness unknown
7 of 9 9/19/11 8:03 PMLED Tree Sculpture Aurora Will Light Up Burning Man | Unde... http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/aurora/
-----In the end we used 17 sheets of .065 copper sheet 3' x 10' to make the 4200 copper
leaves
(30) 4'x8' sheets of steel, thickness unknown
---It looks like in the end we will use about 60 sheets of 18 gauge cold rolled steel 30 4'
x 10' and 30 4' x 8
(10) sheets of steel, dimensions of a "sheet" unknown, 1/4" thickness
I think by the time we are done we will only use 6 4' x 8' plate of 1/4" plate but there is
an additional 4 4' x 8' 1/2 plate.
Block…
this list does not include the 14,000 pieces of hardware (ie nuts and bolts) that is a real
number...
or the 4000 feet of LED lighting,
or the 1200 electrical connectors
and the list just keeps on growing..
If you would like to see how this work of art gets built, we are looking for additional
volunteers who would like to bring this work of art to life.
http://aurorathewillow.com/
Caroline Miller
If you want to know those things then please show up and help build the project.
http://charlesgadeken.com/art/...
Contact Charlie for more details!
TheOneFlyingSquirrel
Lots of pretty pictures...An "artist rendering" isn't exactly the same as art, though, is it?
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