Idea 074 - Dandelion Galaxy

This post is part of the 100 project ideas project. #The100DayProject. I am looking for feedback. Comment below or DM me via social media Instagram, Twitter.

One Line Pitch

An art installation of a sphere of LEDS that show the night sky from outside earth

Description

This sculpture looks like a seed head of a dandelion with LEDs at the tips of each seed pod that represent stars in consultations from the perspective of a satellite outside the galaxy looking inwards to Earth.

At the center there is a solid sphere that represents earth. It should be about 1 Meter wide, and reflective.

Reflective polished stainless steel tubes come out of the central sphere in all directions. Each tube should be about 2 meters long. Ridgid, reflective. There should be a few hundred of these piples.

At the end of each stainless steel tube there is a bundle of wires that spread out in all directions. These wires should be stiff but flexible.

At the end of each wire there is an individually addressable RGB LED.

A single large tube should come out of the central core to the base. This holds up the entire sculpture in the air and provides a pathway for the electrical wires. This should look like a dandelion stem.

At first glance the whole sculpture should look like a giant dandelion with thousands of LEDS shimmering in blue, white, yellow, orange, and red.

The LEDs represent the stars in the night sky. They are arranged in roughly the same positions as they are from the perspective of earth looking up towards the sky. They twinkle with the color temperature of the stars that they represent (blue, white, yellow, orange, and red)

On a timer a constellation is revealed by dimming all the other LEDs and illuminating the stars in the constellation. The constellation stays illuminated for 1 mins then all the LEDs return to their original illumination before the whole process repeats. There are 88 International Astronomical Union recognized constellations so the whole process would take about 88*2=176 min or Just under 2 hours to complete.

Prior art

• Palm Springs Desert Museum
• Just Don’t ­Call Them Weeds - A LED in a Dandelion Seed Head
• Remote Control Starburst - A lamp with fairy lights, its cheap looking.
• Hancock Center Lobby / Lucent By Wolfgang Buttress