"Perhaps an awareness of our place within the universe is being blinded by our own light." Danielé Pinna, New York University Astronomy Professor, a consultant on Reflecting the Stars.
Reflecting the Stars, an interactive hydro powered light installation alongside New York City's Hudson River, debuts this summer, an artistic public art exhibition designed to inform and inspire action around the problems associated with light pollution. So keep an eye out, veteran sky watchers, for the return of that famous fire-breathing, circumpolar constellation Draco the Dragon, absent from the city's skyline for some 30 years!
Tonight’s diary is dedicated to my niece and nephew, Jessica and Nicholas Phelan, who are graduating college this weekend.
Congratulations, sweet hearts. To celebrate your accomplishments, I have purchased two stars, so your names will be reflected in the stars throughout this summer in the city. I am so very proud of both of you!
The goal of our work is to spark a sublime moment for the viewer/listener/consumer.
Perhaps this inspiration comes from Don Quixote’s quest for sublime adventure, a desire for danger driven goose bumps, a love of slapstick, or a battle with the inexplicable.
Perhaps these varied inspirations bring our varied works.
We want you to laugh, we want you to be moved, we want you to interact with our work. To be inspired by it’s complicité between power and fragility, humor and fear, beauty and utility.
We want you to question how you view community, landscape, existence.
Perhaps it brings insight to a pressing issue, explores nature’s battle with human nature, reveals an undiscovered place or time, or is simply fun to slide down.
Regardless, we hope our work brings greater beauty to your world.
Jon Morris, Founder/Creative Director, The Windmill Factory & Reflecting the Stars.
Meet Jon Morris. International extreme theater performer/creator. Aerial artist. Champion of melding art with social causes to create a new media for the world to "speak art to each other, to bring beauty and awareness to major issues." And current director of The Windmill Factory, "a collective of artists, designers, architects, performers, and producers with over 30 years experience and a client list that includes Microsoft, Apple, 2008 Olympics, Cirque Du Soleil, Carnegie Hall, Radio City, The Oscars, Broadway, Fuerzabruta, Madonna, David Letterman, De La Guarda, Pilobolus, The Metropolitan Opera joining together in social entrepreneurship in 2009."
Flying high on Morris' laundry list this summer is his most recent project, "Reflecting the Stars," an interactive hydropowered Light Installation in Hudson River Park. RTS, which features solar powered LED clusters implanted on hundreds of decaying pier posts, aims to raise awareness and teach prevention techniques for light pollution. Each night at twilight, the light displays will twinkle in a variety of patterns to mirror the lost starry sky. Over the course of the three month installation, RTS expects 2.5 million viewers, 828 shining hours, and 23,040 people interacting with the exhibit. They will be able to learn about the 12 constellations of the Zodiac, view no-longer-visible constellations like Herculues, Lynx and Draco, and creatively play light games.
Kuala Lumpur city of Malaysia view from Bukit Ampang. Nighttime lights can block our view of the universe and change the rhythms of life on Earth.Learn more about Light Pollution here. Photo credit: "Light Pollution by naza1715
"Since the early 1980s, a global dark-sky movement has emerged, with concerned people campaigning to reduce the amount of light pollution.
"Light pollution is a side effect of industrial civilization. Its sources include building exterior and interior lighting, advertising, commercial properties, offices, factories, streetlights, and illuminated sporting venues. It is most severe in highly industrialized, densely populated areas of North America, Europe, and Japan and in major cities in the Middle East and North Africa like Tehran and Cairo, but even relatively small amounts of light can be noticed and create problems. Like other forms of pollution (such as air, water, and noise pollution) light pollution causes damage to the environment."Link
"We are blinding ourselves from our connection to the universe by our own actions, by creating so much air pollution," says Morris. "The goal is to have an iPhone app which individuals can use to interact with the exhibition. Our hope is that this installation will inspire people to go home and change to energy efficient light bulbs or turn off their power strips or switch to a green power sources."
Morris, whose creative itch to create interactive public art began at a young age ("I was making haunted houses at age 5 for the whole community") received a fellowship which enabled him to study and perform study physical theater in London, Paris, Sydney, India, Bali, and Italy. His dream of creating a public 'art factory' has been realized through Windmill Factory projects.
"What happens if our children grow up and they are losing this connection to the heavens and the sky" Morris asks. "I grew up in a small town in Kentucky. To not be able to see the stars is unfathomable to me.My goal is to expand the limits of theater to reach a more diverse audience and combine it with my interest in urban planning. How do we design a city in ways in which it can change the way people live, interact and think about their role in the world?"
Morris is not a proponent of "in your face politics" but rather views social justice as "a piece of art that effects people in a beautiful way, educates them, raising questions in their minds minds about how to make a change in their life. Another one of the Windmill Factory's projects "Clothing the Line," aims to raise awareness about New York's 35,000 homeless by creating a small studio apartment without walls or a ceiling in a public space in the city. For 3 weeks, the walls are created from clothes donated by the public to assist the city's homeless. Visitors are encouraged to walk inside the walls of clothing to experience the loneliness of a homeless individual.
Another Windmill installation, "THE WEDGE" premiered last year at Burning Man, where over 30,000 people romped in a 30’ tall, 24’ wide, and 72’ long play structure. Part aerial performance center, art gallery, fun house and sound stage, it also has a 60 foot Sliding Board, a Plush Lounge, and a Panoramic Lookout. "THE WEDGE" is presently being prepared to tour International Art Festivals. Link
Some Light Pollution Facts
*The starry night sky will vanish in the contiguous United States by 2025. Already, one fifth of the world can no longer see the milky way.
"The rhythm of life is orchestrated by the natural diurnal patterns of light and dark, so disruption to these patterns impacts the ecological dynamics."
*Lighting is responsible for one-fourth of all energy consumption worldwide
*Over-illumination is responsible for over two million barrels of oil per day in wasted energy in the United States alone.
*Medical research suggests that excessive light negatively impacts the human body: increasing headaches, impacting mood and anxiety, decreasing sexual activity and increasing worker fatigue.
*Light pollution negatively impacts the physiology of plants and animals, confuses animal navigation, altering predator-prey relations, and altering competetive interactions.
*The US Green Building Council (USGBC) issues credits for reducing the amount of light trespass and sky glow as part of their environmentally friendly building standard known as LEED.
*The International Dark Sky Association has compiled a list of Approved Fixtures
(for additional information about Light Pollution, visit the International Dark Sky Association.)
Draco the Dragon, is a "circumpolar constellation," which means that it never sets in its revolutions around the north pole. It is visible year round in the northern hemisphere. Early each October, Draco is located between the Big Dipper, Vega, Lyra's brightest star, and Hercules. Come mid-October, Draco is most vibrant, appearing to breathe fire into the solar system.
About the Installation
The installation features interactive plaques along the shoreline of the Hudson, a programmable wireless system and waterproof LED solar lamps, which consist of 6 blue and 6 white LEDs on a 16 channel dimmer. The design accentuates gradient colors and can present constellations in opposing colors. Rusted pipe caps are used as the casting for the lamps, designed to match the decaying pier posts.
Peak View (Hong Kong) by CarbonSilver (gbenz)
"Light pollution aka photopollution or luminous pollution is defined as "excessive or obtrusive artificial light" and acccording to the International Dark-Sky Association(IDA) is any adverse effect "including sky glow, glare, light trespass, light clutter, decreased visibility at night, and energy waste." This pollution not only decreases sky visibility but also disrupts ecosystems and has negative impacts on human health.
Endnote:
In the spirit of collaboration, RTS invites individuals to help create the installation ... You can purchase a star and its not too late to participate as a co- sponsor of the project. Link
All photos, unless otherwise credited, were provided courtesy of The Windmill Factory.
GreenRoots is an environmental series created by Meteor Blades and Patriot Daily for Daily Kos. This series provides a forum for educating, brainstorming, discussing and taking action on various environmental topics.
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