Lily Pond
A large-scale, immersive installation for the Black Rock Arts Festival (Burning Man), 2002. Solar-powered lily pads, lampworked glass lotus flowers, fiberoptic dragonflies, ceramic koi, glass fish, steel shore plants. Did we leave anything out ? Frogs.
Funded in part by Burning Man LLC, The Firegarden, and the Black Rock Arts Foundation.
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The solar lily pads were completely self-contained - photovoltaic solar cells for power, NiMH batteries for energy storage, microcomputer for control of the lighting system, high-brightness LED for illuminating the desert floor. Each pad was in communication (via infrared signals) with its' neighbors, and they were running an algorhythm that simulated wave motion on a fluid surface. The entire piece was a physical implementation of cellular automata, the output of which was modulation of the LED lighting in such a way that ripples (waves) of light would travel through the system when stimulated by breaking the infrared links.
This piece was created in collaboration with: Kathleen Fernald, Kevin Gauna, Dennis Baum, Michael Christian, Amaryst Bauer, Lee Kobus and Jay Kravitz, with the generous help of: Maia Bazjanac, Mike Woolson, Kelly Saturno, DeeAnne Burke, Otto, Dan Ng, Carol Franger, David Ballinger, Mardi Storm, and many others whose names I have to look up !