Sunpendulum

The Sunpendulum is a media art project by the Austrian media artist Hofstetter Kurt, where 12 video cameras connected to the internet observe the sky twenty-four hours a day from twelve locations around the earth, creating a sun clock which spans the entire earth. Since 1991, the artistic work of Hofstetter Kurt has focussed on parallelism and circulation, sky, light and time, leading to the project Sunpendulum. In 1997 Hofstetter Kurt released the concept of the Sunpendulum project. With public and private support he was able to start with the realisation of the project in 1998. Of its nature, the realisation is based on interdisciplinary cooperation in arts and science, as well as on the assistance of a whole host of artistic, academic and scientific people and institutions from around the earth, the Sunpendulum kernel team and collaboration partners.

Sunpendulum concept

As time goes by - that means with the rotation of earth, sunlight wanders its way to earth: a continuous circulation of light and shade – day and night – in parallels. In 12 time zones around the earth video cameras are directed towards the sky and connected online to the Internet. 12 video cameras – the Sunpendulum Time-Eyes – watch the sky around the earth. This phase of the project is termed INPLUSION. At a certain place on earth 12 screens are setup in a circle within a specially designed pavilion. Those screens are connected online via the Internet with the 12 time-eyes and transmit the sunlight from the 12 time zones. This is the EXPLOSION phase. A sun clock is being continually created. With the rotation of earth, that means over time, the sunlight is moving within the circle of the screens. In the inner circle, day and night can be experienced in parallel at the same time.

Sunpendulum realisation

Inplusion

In 1999 the first Sunpendulum Time-Eye was installed on Maui/Hawaii in the framework of research collaboration. With this collaboration it has come about that the main realisation item of INPLUSION is to install the Time-Eyes for permanent use in close collaboration with Universities or Research Centres in the respective time zones, which can easily provide all the necessary facilities in a very solid way. In 1999 also the Time-Eyes of Bermuda and Granada, in 2000 the Time-Eyes of Cairo, New Orleans and Ensenada, in 2001 the Time-Eye of the Azores, in 2002 the Time-Eye of Dubai, in 2003 the Time-Eye of Hong Kong, in 2004 the Time-Eye of Kolkata, in 2005 the Time-Eye of Tokyo and finally in 2006 the Time-Eye of the Marshall Islands were installed. With support of the Austrian Mission in the respective time zones and on the occasion of a Time-Eye‘s installation, the collaboration partner has organized a big press event to communicate the participation and cooperation in the international Sunpendulum project. The cameras are mounted on the roofs of institution buildings with a clear view of the sky. The cameras all have the same orientation: due east at an elevation of 24 degrees.
http://www.sunpendulum.at/-inplusion.html

Explosion

"The Sun is public, knowing no difference between day or night." The Sunpendulum Station Φ is public, open 24 hours and accessible from all directions. The Circle – the basic element of Sunpendulum's structure and movement – dictates the geometry of the Station Φ 24 pairs of half cylinders are set up in a circle and form entry points in all directions. Adjacent concavities are shifted in parallel by the radius of the semicircular profile and the corresponding convexities touch each other. Their particular form - -(resembles the symbol for "universal brotherhood" of the Hopi Indians, which are touching each other and thus closing a circle. This shell protects the inner space against daylight – no light beam is directly reaching the inner circle of the screens. The distance between opposing screens has been fixed at 6 meters, forming an intimate space. An Iris of Solar cells on the roof receives the light of the sun and produces all the necessary energy.
http://www.sunpendulum.at/-explosion.html

Sunpendulum parallel projects

X-tense imaging

Online imaging using the Sunpendulum palette of 12 different sky image streams around the earth to create "x-tense images":
- offline regeneration experiments using the Sunpendulum Time-Eye’s imagestreams - x-tense regeneration.
- online composition of a picture by selecting and superimposing sky areas of the Sunpendulum Time-Eye’s image streams.
Sharing x-tense images with the public - an online streaming experience changing with the rotation of the earth:
- to release x-tense images to the WWW community.
- to create installations of WWW environments embedding x-tense images.
http://www.sunpendulum.at/-x.html

C light pendula

The images from two of the Sunpendulum time-eyes, 12 hours apart, are constantly sent to a screen, where a central circular field of one sky is superimposed on the other. With the rotation of the earth, that means over time, the light of the sky in the inner circle is changing complementary to the light of the sky surrounding it, 12 hours distant. Two moons circulate on the border of this field, their position showing the local time, correct for both time zones.

1999: A media art installation of the 1st C light pendulum [ hawaii ||| vienna ] was temporary realized at the 'echoraum' Vienna using the Sunpendulum Time-Eye of Hawaii as well as the software by Stephan Mantler / imagination gmbh.

2003: the C light pendula www-client was released as a Sunpendulum parallel project using the images of the Sunpendulum Time-Eyes in collaboration with the Sunpendulum partners around the earth. As a www based Java Applet program, developed by Herbert Schwabl, the C light pendula project was made permanently available to the public.

2005: the 1st C light pendula - sculpture [ kolkata ||| new orleans ] -- [ new orleans ||| kolkata ] was realized as Austrian contribution to the 'Triennale India' exhibition - New Delhi 2005. Following the installation of the Sunpendulum Time-Eye of Tokyo the C light pendulum [ tokyo ||| azores ] was permanently installed at the Future Design Institute / Kanazawa Institute of Technology - Tokyo.

2006: the 1st TwiLight Pendulum - sculpture [ dusk ||| dawn ] -- [ dawn ||| dusk ] was realized in the installation at the ZKM exhibition "Light Art from Artificial Light" in Karlsruhe 2005/2006.

2007: Following the ZKM installation of the Twilight Pendulum - sculpture the TwiLight Pendulum - space installation was realized in the Expanded Cinema exhibition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam / IFFR 2007.
http://www.sunpendulum.at/-clp.html

Facing Time Eyes

Live images from the Sunpendulum Time-Eyes around the earth are constantly downloaded to be superimposed upon the pupil of computer generated eyes. Whenever the download process of a new image is complete the computer system triggers the opening and closing of the eyelid and refreshes the sky image in its pupil. The respective refresh rate, i.e. the data transmission bandwidth, at the moment of Internet controls the winking of the eye - and how long the moments last.
http://www.sunpendulum.at/-fte.html

Sunpendulum kernel team and collaboration partners

The Sunpendulum kernel team consists of scientists (chiefly from the Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna University of Technology) and artists working together to maintain the integrity and functionality of the Sunpendulum project on a permanent basis. The kernel team’s most essential tasks are on-going technical developments to meet the artistic intention of the project and the ‘alive-keeping’ of all hardware and software elements, remaining in permanent communication with the Sunpendulum collaboration partners around the world.

Institute of Computergraphics and Algorithms, Vienna University of Technology / A http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/

The Sunpendulum collaboration partners are scientific and academic institutions who participate in the project not only by hosting the time-eye cameras, hardware and servers on-site, but also by signalising and actively participating in international, cross-cultural co-operation. The Sunpendulum collaboration partners are:

University of Hawaii / Maui Community College / USA http://maui.hawaii.edu/
Universidad Autonomous de Baja California / MX http://ing.ens.uabc.mx/
University of New Orleans / USA http://www.uno.edu/
Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute / GB http://www.buei.org/
Universidade dos Acores / Angra Campus / P http://www.angra.uac.pt/
Universidad de Granada / E http://www.ugr.es/
Ain Shams University Cairo / EG http://asunet.shams.eun.eg/
Zayed University Dubai / UAE http://www.zu.ac.ae/
Jadavpur University Kolkata / IND http://www.jadavpur.edu/
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology / PRC http://www.ust.hk/
Kanazawa Institute of Technology / JP http://www.kanazawa-it.ac.jp/ekit/
College of the Marshall Islands / RMI http://www.cmi.edu/

External Links

Sunpendulum homepage
Sunpendulum Google Earth tour