Solar Collector a solar-powered, web-connected, interactive sculpture by Matt Gorbet, Rob Gorbet, and Susan Gorbet Evening launch party and performance June 21st, 8:30pm (the sculpture comes to life at dusk, ~9:30pm)
We invite you to celebrate the summer solstice at the launch of Solar Collector on June 21st. Bring an evening picnic out to the grassy lawn under the apple trees, and enjoy live music to accompany the sculpture’s performance. 100 Maple Grove Road, Cambridge, Ontario (Google satellite map) Join us!
	Featured Performers Master of Ceremonies: Rae Crossman, Centre for Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo JC Morrison, Tilly Kooyman and Marion Samuel-Stevens will perform selected works by distinguished Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. Carousel Dance Company, with choreography by Richelle Brown, will perform on site. Drumming by all-percussion group Organic Groove.
	In a collaboration between the community and the sun, Solar Collector gathers human expression and solar energy during the day, then brings them together each night in a performance of flowing light.
	Twelve aluminum shafts rise from the grassy hill in front of the Waterloo Regional Operations Centre. Their graceful shape reflects the angles of the sun through the year. The tallest shaft is perpendicular to the sun at winter solstice, when the sun is low in the sky. The flattest shaft faces the high sun at summer solstice. Each shaft has three sets of lights, along with three solar panels. During the day, the solar panels collect the sun’s energy in a battery within each shaft. At the same time, the Solar Collector website collects light compositions – patterns in light that are created by the community through a simple web interface. Each night at dusk, a performance begins of all the compositions collected that day. The flowing waves of light are a visual reflection of the sine waves that describe the sun’s movement through the sky. When the day’s patterns are through, the performance moves on to a series composed collaboratively from all the patterns ever created. The length of the performance is a reflection of the weather and the seasons, as the shafts use up their energy and fade out late in the evening, one by one. www.solarcollector.ca