This is a Benefit for PyroTech Labs. We are going to be raising funds to help fund a massive kinetic sculpture for the burn this year.
The party starts at 8pm

$5 suggested donation at the door

DJ's spinning Tech / Psybreaks and heavy Dubstep with a dash of Grime.

There will be a bar taking donations and spreading the joy.

So please come out and show your support.

Location: Candy Mountain Warehouse
1190 28th st.
Emeryville Ca 94608


Project details:

Sunrise was developed to inspire individuals to see things from different angles, through compound circles and the possibility of patterns in seemingly chaotic swirls of movement, to help people think outside day-to-day encounters with movement and perspective. A seemingly simple concept, the gyroscopic effect, is elaborated upon to show seven distinct angles of movement and perspective which allows a user, not only an observer, to see the innate shapes these rings create in motion. Users control the speed, direction, number, and visibility of these rings from a remote station through an electronic interface; it allows people to produce, and attempt to reproduce, visible patterns or geometric shapes in its illuminated points of axis.

Our first steps were taken in Sept. 2008, with its initial conception; shortly after designs and schematics were drafted. Building on the prototype began in late October ’08 at the Department of Spontaneous Combustion, the model stands at 10 feet with speed control, and light emitting diodes representing points of light and rotation on the full scale model. The first fundraiser for the project took place in December, making enough to cover the cost of the prototype.

Like the scale model, the full scale version has bearing points placed along the ratio of 5/3 – the golden ratio, or golden spiral(found everywhere in nature, but known mostly due to the mathematician Fibonacci, and the artist Leonardo da’Vinci), which allows the seven independent rings to traverse a spherical realm broken into multiple planes. The effect is 14 points of light moving along regular paths at irregular intervals, encapsulated in a shell of contrasting light; as the sculpture slows down or changes direction the axis lights take on a floating motion and seem to be suspended in a fluid body before being thrown back into motion by a controller. Electro-magnetic latches will be placed at bearing or counter-bearing points to engage specific rings from a control station, which will allow the sculpture to rotate as a single unit, or break apart into a number of various combinations of rings creating different shapes and motions. External forces will also play a role in the way patterns evolve by way of accumulated mass with connected rings and wind resistance, thus allowing the possibility of a kinetic sculpture that has either complete human control, or natural uncontrolled motion. Allowing the opportunity of infinite possibilities grants the sense of both control and chaos in the sculpture making interaction equally important to observation, though neither is independently complete. As people continue to interact with the piece they may find a particular sequence of controls will generate a sequence of events or patterns in what had previously seemed like a chain of random movements of light, these can be reproduced in the same conditions. The intensity of each light set can be controlled independently of other rings which allow particular shapes (i.e. stars, cubes etc) to become more noticeable in a pattern set. The number of variables at play makes the central point of rotation evasive and creates a body of light without attachment to position or restriction of movement.


MECHANICS
When outside lighting falls on project Sunrise the mechanical grace is noticed as the rings ranging from 1.5-13 feet in diameter glide past each other at 3 inches of spacing on every imaginable plane; a single point has up to 1.84467441x10^19 possible positions at any time. Load bearing is close to 1,000 lbs. And balance will be within 2lbs on axis which requires flange mounted bearings with hollow shanks for feeding electrical coupling from the base to the innermost ring. Standing at nearly 20 feet with the base, Sunrise will be visible from over 400ft. away but the movements will begin to make sense the closer an observer gets to it. A safety perimeter will be clearly marked at 25ft in all directions and made most noticeable by the control podium, which will stand four feet tall and house the motor control, the electro-magnetic releases, the light intensity controllers and the blast control. The safety perimeter will also include three additional illuminated pedestals connected by illuminated cable, to deter people from getting dangerously close to the sculpture. Sunrise will be driven by a 240vac, 7.5 hp, single phase electric motor geared down via chain drive and housed in an acrylic casing in the base. A motor control (PC1-75; digital, 1-3phase, 240vac with .1 ~ 6000 sec. response) will run from the control panel, to the motor, allowing safe and accurate control from a remote station. The control center will transmit a radio control signal to RF receivers in the rings for light actuations via Audrino analog/digital transponders (four channel controllers which break into two gateways- primary lights and secondary lights on each bearing point, then dimmer controls – two per gateway). Current for the electro-magnetic latches must be 110v, consequently we will be routing through the center of the bearings with 18pt slip rings which will allow for independent control of each latch. Our user interface itself will be made from a stripped mixing console coupled with photo sensors and variable speed levers cased in a brushed steel “podium”.

OPERATIONS
During the week Sunrise will be attended by a crew of 4 who will facilitate smooth and safe operation, for the first four days, however, the user control will be in a limited operation mode so that it may be run without crew presence. The reason being that we would like to allow people to encounter the piece earlier in the week on a more individual level- without crew or crowds, no instructions, just an open control panel. During the latter half of the week we anticipate more people and the need to facilitate interaction, but with crew assistance users will be able to control more parameters and create more intricate images.