{"id":5882,"date":"2018-04-27T11:35:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T15:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2018-06-27T14:05:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T18:05:26","slug":"sun-stomp-solar-art-could-power-a-baltimore-home-for-one-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/archives\/5882","title":{"rendered":"Sun Stomp solar art could power a Baltimore home for one year"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a big week for us with the announcement\u00a0that Rio Iluminado<\/em>\u00a0won the\u00a0LAGI Willimantic\u00a0design competition<\/a> in Connecticut.<\/h2>\n

We’re floored by the community’s will to transform\u00a0their town<\/a>\u00a0into an exciting new destination for people from all walks of life, and look forward to stepping into the project’s next phase.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, we recently caught up with the Baltimore group behind\u00a0Sun Stomp,\u00a0an interactive solar-powered audio and video environment that comes alive with a throng of happy stompers.<\/p>\n

\"Sun<\/p>\n

First, the details.\u00a0A scaffolding sculpture with two sides \u2014 an interactive, 34-foot-tall projection screen on one face and a sloped array of 16 290-watt solar panels on the other,\u00a0along with elevated bleachers\u00a0placed 30-feet away from the screen and illuminated by neon LEDs\u00a0\u2014 Sun Stomp produces (and stores) enough energy to power a regular Baltimore home for a year, according to the Collective.<\/p>\n

Of course, nobody is suggesting we should all\u00a0build bleachers in our backyard and make a bunch of noise\u00a0to annoy our neighbors, but the project does demonstrate\u00a0that a pinch\u00a0of creativity\u00a0applied to clean-energy generation\u00a0delivers\u00a0a smorgasbord of benefits.<\/p>\n

\"Sun
\nJudging by photos and videos captured during\u00a0Baltimore’s recent Light City festival<\/a>,\u00a0where Sun Stomp made its neon-tinted debut, visitors were captivated\u00a0as their wild stomping triggered sun-inspired visuals and amplified sounds\u00a0derived\u00a0from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.<\/p>\n

Coreil-Allen teamed up with Matthew Weaver, a solar engineer with a social conscience, along with\u00a0sound and video guru Mark Brown, to\u00a0conceive a project for Light City. Said to be\u00a0the United States’ only large-scale international light and ideas festival, it was held this year from April 14 – 21.\u00a0 A\u00a0public artist, Coreill-Allen says he has observed that colorful, interactive projects tend to do well at the festival, but he wanted to go\u00a0one step further. “I thought it would be cool to also bring a social component into the experience,” he told LAGI. The trio brainstormed ideas over food and coffee, and Sun Stomp was born.<\/p>\n

Brown outfitted the bleachers with a set of eight contact microphones. “So when people stomp on, walk on or otherwise physically interact with these clangy aluminum and steel bleachers, those audio signals are picked up and processed through the program he [Brown] has configured,” says Coreil-Allen.\u00a0That movement then activates\u00a0“very loud, popping, vivid imagery” of the sun on the projection screen, as well as various audio samples, and then brightens LEDs under the bleachers\u00a0and outlining the entire scaffolding structure.<\/p>\n

\"Sun
\n“Seen at night,” he continues, “it’s almost like the energy is visually and literally flowing from those solar panels<\/a> horizontally across the scaffolding structure and re-manifesting as this beautiful sun that people are controlling through their physical interactions.”<\/p>\n

Their main aim, according to Coreil-Allen? “To inspire people through the experience of the sun and help them understand the power of solar energy.”<\/p>\n

This\u00a0is right up our alley. We love any collaborative public art project that combines art, clean-energy generation and education with a playful spirit. So much more\u00a0compelling than a plain field of photovoltaics. But there’s also a practical element to the story that is particularly relevant to public artists\u00a0who face the eternal challenge of digging up funding.<\/p>\n

\"Sun<\/p>\n

Coreil-Allen explains that the idea of a solar-powered artwork first stemmed from another project. He was in talks with the City of Baltimore to produce a piece with internal lighting, when the subject of energy came up. Coreil-Allen had to figure out what\u00a0permits would be necessary to run conduits\u00a0to deliver city power to\u00a0his sculpture, and naturally the City wanted to know who would pay for it.<\/p>\n

“When designing public art, it’s got to\u00a0have a real bulletproof maintenance plan,” he says.\u00a0 “It’s got to last about 30 years\u00a0with minimal maintenance, typically.”<\/p>\n

He realized he could avoid a lot of red tape and make the project renewable<\/a> by simply using solar power. With Matt, he says they were able to engineer an elegant way of integrating the solar panels with the sculpture, which Mark brought alive with color and sound.<\/p>\n

Sun Stomp Collective\u00a0is currently in\u00a0talks to share their\u00a0art energy generator elsewhere.\u00a0Follow them on Facebook to watch as they grow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All images via Sun Stomp Collective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tafline Laylin is a freelance communicator and journalist who strives for global environmental and social justice. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, OZY.com, and a variety of other international publications.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a big week for us with the announcement\u00a0that Rio Iluminado\u00a0won the\u00a0LAGI Willimantic\u00a0design competition in Connecticut. We’re floored by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":5890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[103,69,27],"tags":[166,165,28,112,167,164,163],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecoart","category-renewable-energy-public-art","category-solar-power","tag-baltimore","tag-light-city-festival","tag-public-art","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar-art","tag-solar-power","tag-sun-stomp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74330,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions\/74330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landartgenerator.org\/blagi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}