Without the sun we are nothing on Earth. It is our anchor, our saviour, our nourishment. From past to future, the sun has been a constant, yet how we interact has evolved from fear to observation to meticulous precision of measurements, and to manipulation for our means (through harnessing solar energy). Alongside this trajectory, we are still playing with light. The sun rising, the sun above our heads and the sun setting - we know the sun’s path - now we must try to understand our friend and guide better.
We created an interactive installation that manifests, hour by hour, the extremes of the sun’s incidence throughout the year. By mounting a folded plate abstraction of an analemma onto a rotating axis, we put the movement of the sun on a rod we can play with, while still tethered to the limits of the real sun. The sun becomes a toy in the hands of the observers, who can manipulate the assembly to create their own sets of shadows. At night, an additional set of ‘suns’ light up the pivoting analemmas and can be turned on and off to uncover new combinations. Playing with the structure invites viewers to engage in a knowledge set that has existed for billions of years, yet whose real value remains significantly underexplored, and vital for the future. Without the sun we are nothing.