Peter Erskine\

Solar Spectrum Environmental art Arte Solare Ambientale

Secrets of the Sun: Millennial Meditations

What is Secrets of the Sun?

Secrets of the Sun is a new, interactive Solar art medium for the twenty-first century. It uses natural Sunlight and laser-cut flat prisms to spread huge splashes of natural rainbow color across interior spaces. Viewers/participants actually walk inside a rainbow. They become living canvases as millions of changing colors flow across their bodies, mixing and creating colored shadows on the walls, floor and other visitors. The Rainbow is a symbol of hope and a source of joy for all cultures. Secrets of the Sun has deep universal appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds.

How it works:

Employing a heliostat -- Solar tracking mirror -- Erskine uses the light of the Sun, 93,000,000 miles away, as his subject matter, art medium, and energy source. Intercepted some eight minutes later by the heliostat, the "white light" of the Sun is bent by a high-tech prism that pour the Sun's natural vibrant colors into interior spaces. Arrays of interior mirrors direct the spectrum colors to specific rooms creating millions of slowly changing colors that articulate architectural details and surfaces.

Sound Artists Bruce Odland of New York and Sam Auinger of Berlin collaborated with Erskine to create interactive, solar powered sound installations in the Rome and Berlin exhibitions. Solar-powered photovoltaic panels generated all the electricity for those artworks. No filters or electric light are used in Secrets of the Sun.

Secondary fixed mirrors

(middle)

Photovoltaic solar electric panels

(lower)

Spectrum Vapor Chimney. Sunlight, prism light, and water vapor.