Visited the @_solar_lab in Brussels and met the impeccable duo @joanielemercier and @juliettebibasse . I left feeling so inspired by the environmentally friendly media art they’ve been diligently conceiving, powered by the wind and the sun. The duo is going on a journey across the Atlantic on a boat, setting up a temporary art studio on the ocean before landing in NYC and the West Coast. Wishing you the best of luck 🌊🚢
170.000 years: this is the average time it takes for a photon to escape the core of the sun and reach its surface. Outside the Sun, the photons will then travel the 149.6 million km distance to the Earth in under 8 minutes.
The light that warms and illuminates the world today was created 170,000 years ago in a nuclear fusion reaction, deep in the heart of the Sun.
This passive, analog installation is a tribute to this journey, its message made visible by the very photons that pass through the lens.
Caustics lens computation: @rayform
Timelapse: @romaintes_
Sculpting light from the sun.
Behind the scenes: we're making lenses to bend solar rays and redirect photons into a circle, as an homage to the sun.
Caustics lens computation: @rayform
Solaris lumens is currently on view at @mudaclausanne .
Solaris lumens: a solar projection
This analog projection system is a custom optical plate that concentrates the sun's rays, deflecting photons and sculpting light. Solaris lumens is an homage to Spinoza's idea of Pantheism: as soon as the Sun shines, it produces a circle that becomes perfect at a specific moment of the day.
The installation is currently on view just outside @mudaclausanne
in Lausanne Switzerland.
Solaris lumen, 2024-2025
Creation & conception: @_solar_lab (@JulietteBibasse & @JoanieLemercier )
Caustics lens computation: @rayform
Technical development: Martin Pirson (@mrtnprsn Studio Lemercier)
Timelapses: @romaintes_
Work commissioned by @mudaclausanne as part of the Solar Biennale Soleil.s 2025
Our new project Solar Lab is bringing us to new experimentation spaces: wooden structures, mirrors, 3D print, laser calibration.
We just did a residency in the hometown of the inventor of the first solar powered engine (Mouchot, 1878) and on the solstice, we activated our solar concentrator at night with low powered lasers and smoke.
music: Stria - Grain Clouds VI
The amount of energy conveyed by the sun is hard to grasp.
At @_solar_lab we're carrying a series of simple experiments to start understanding the scale and potential of sun rays.
It only takes a few seconds to set paper, cardboard and wood on fire, with only 2 mirrors of 38cm diameter (you can see the 2 sun rays through the smoke).
Imagine if we started using this energy more efficiently.
Our solar concentrator will soon be open source, so anyone can join us in the playful research.
New @_solar_lab project.
We're doing a residency in the hometown of Augustin Mouchot, the inventor of the earliest solar-powered engine, presented at the Expo Universelle in Paris in 1878.
Our new open source solar concentrator collects and redirects 2.000 Watts of energy and light, with 2.1m² of solar power.
Designed together with @mrtnprsn and exhibited at @lacitebahut all summer, join me and @juliettebibasse for the opening on the solstice tomorrow ☀️
