The Course of Things

In the beginning:

My interest is in sunrise so I've begun to break down the project into parts to be tackled separately and then brought together.

Here are the bits so far, beginning with dawn, the time just before the sun breaks the horizon. To help explain, here are some notes I've been working on.

The qualities of light in the early morning, as we perceive them, are due in large part to the sun's position relative to the horizon and the amount of atmosphere that the light must travel through.

Like water, the atmosphere "bends" the light or refracts it because it changes speeds (ever so slightly) between mediums (vacuum of space > air). Not only does this cause us to see the sun before it has actually reached the horizon, but it also causes it to change shape - but again only slightly, and it isn't normally observable.

The diagram above describes my intent with this portion of the work. I want to recreate the affects of refraction. My hopes are that the apparatus will manipulate perceptions of time and refract the light, mimicking the natural sunrise.

Another aspect is color. The colors of sunrise are also caused by the amount of atmosphere the sun must travel through before it reaches our eyes. The red and orange colors we see are caused by particles in the air which scatter the other wavelengths [colors]. Predictably with my work I've found that the color of light transmitted through the acrylic, when it is used as the transient medium, changes depending on the amount of material the light must pass through.

p.s. there are spelling mistakes in my notes - sorry.