Solar artwork

Solar artwork is a new type of art that integrates the new technologies related to collection and use of solar power. Thanks to this capability to produce clean energy, these works of solar art offer some resources and possibilities that have remained unnoticed until now in this field of art.

Solar-powered artworks are generally categorized as public art, because they should be exhibited in open spaces with optimal solar exposure. There are only a few cases where the artwork has been located within indoor spaces.

Solar artwork combines art, architecture, design, science, and a common objective to create new aesthetic spaces within urban landscapes where, at the same time, they can take an active part in the ecological global awareness.

The interactive possibilities are their main attraction. The capability to produce solar power and apply it in an independent way within urban landscapes makes solar artwork more than an artistic ornament. This is the point where works of solar art can make the most of their original qualities to be adapted to the surrounding architecture, offering complementary resources that can enhance the artistic experience of the public.

Solar artwork projects have a complex nature, with many possibilities and pioneering characteristics, which may cause confusion regarding their classification. These projects have been designed by artists, but also by architects or designers, and they come from different parts of the world. Therefore, the formal characteristics that we find can be different between them, even more so if we take into account the advances in solar power technology during previous years.

Background

The context of the emergence of this branch of artwork is directly related to our current socio-political situation in the world, about the increasing urgency of leaving the use of fossil fuels and gambling on new types of energy, which are much more efficient based on renewable resources. This process of change has a reflection within the art world, which wants to have an active participation in this common objective (sustainable art). Within these numerous artistic initiatives that exist with the ecology as a background, we can find a little group of designers who want to use the science of solar power collection as part of their artistic production. Works of solar art are an illustrative example about how far the relationship could go between art, architecture and the new technologies from the point of an artistic insight, in addition to their practical contribution.

Solar Artwork Designers

We can find different examples of solar artwork, with the common virtue of their designers’ insight about the aesthetic vision of the solar power production.

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References

Further reading