About
A metal sculpture with for Burningman 2011, the aurora project is being crafted by Charlie Gadeken. The project was funded by bmorg and people like you.
Vision
With this piece, I am creating an environment of mythical beauty that instills a sense of awe, wonder and joy to those who experience it. It acts as a unique and unexpected element placed in the world that empowers and transforms the viewer at the moment of participation. Viewers become enveloped in the magic of the experience and are taken out of the everyday. This work brings light to the darkness, making nature come alive in the desert night. This piece provides branches to read under, a forest in which to play or fight, waging a war full of knights and princesses, a fairy tree to re-ignite our childhood imaginations, full of wonder and endless possibility.
This tree represents the secret clubhouse, the magical wardrobe, the portal from a practical reality into a real life fairy tale. It is the barrier between waking and dreaming. The tree enacts a time outside of time, and a place outside of place. It is a universe all your own, that responds to your presence and an alternate reality that connects and inspires all of us to play.
This weeping willow tree rises 30ft in the air, its stainless steel trunk and copper leaves reflecting the sunlight across the desert. The trunk of the tree is over 8ft in diameter, with its roots extending out twenty feet in all directions, with a 40ft canopy transforming the horizon. The trunk tapers, and as it rises, divides again and again, finally ending in delicate branches. The trunk of the tree is both solid and transparent, created from stainless steel tubing bent in sinuous lines that flow up the tree and are joined together in a spider web with thousands of hand curved stainless steel rods. The roots rise in and out of the ground, creating resting places and benches for people to sit on and under. 3500 copper leaves ripple as the wind blows through the branches.
During the day, AURORA provides a place to meet and sit under it's shade. At night, it dazzles the sky with light. At dusk, 3500 LEDs come to life. Each of the five branches has 60 strands of LEDS that outline the weeping willow in spectacular bursts of color. The LEDS never blink, but slowly fade through the color spectrum or are sequenced through audio input. The tree will listen to the sounds around it and bursts into life, the colored lights blending constantly and highlighting the elegance of the weeping willow tree. Bands of light pass around the tree: greens, yellows, reds and ambers - a dazzling show that constantly changes as the tree moves through the seasons of its life.
Participant controls will be worked into the roots of the tree. Illuminated hand holds with custom built sensors will tune the light pulses of the tree to each participants heart beat. Individual effects buttons will create short bursts of lighting effects. There will be one sensor on each of the five roots that relate to the five main branches of the tree with additional effects buttons scattered around the base and roots of the tree.
Participant controls will be worked into the roots of the tree. Illuminated hand holds with custom built sensors will tune the light pulses of the tree to each participants heart beat. There will be one sensor on each of the five roots that relate to the five main branches of the tree. Individual effects buttons will create short bursts of light effects. There will be one sensor on each of the five roots that relate to the five main branches of the tree with additonal effects bottons scattered around the base and roots of the tree.
Utilizing a parabolic microphone, the willow will also be able to listen to it's environment and change its light patterns in relation to the sounds it hears. It will dance to the audio of a passing art car or flash to shouts of the crowd.