Skyburst
by Stephen Fairfield & Patrick Marcus
Sponsor: Westward Look Resort
Nonprofit: Marana Arts Council

Skyburst is an illuminated aerial multi-armed mobile made up of arms of long flexible stainless steel tubing with clear resin “bursts” at the ends. Both the arms and bursts shine and sparkle in the sunlight. These “bursts” contain both UV and visible light LEDs. Arm motion is created by breezes and birds landing and flying off. The sculpture’s attachment point to the post or wall is in four sections, so that it is mountable on either trees, vertical building surfaces or on an 18 foot high, 6-1/2” diameter steel pole. The solar panel is located on a solar rock located at a distance from the sculpture. The sealed lead acid battery and voltage controller (appropriately waterproofed) will be concealed below grade adjacent to the pole. Skyburst is attached to the mounting surface approximately 15’ from the ground, so that the “bursts” will be at least 12 feet from the ground (anti-vandalism protection).

Fabrication: Skyburst will be fabricated of “arms” of ½-inch stainless steel tubing ranging from three to five feet long welded to a nine inch wide bracket which is the attachment point to the mounting surface. Clear cast two part styrene monomer resin forms (bursts) varying in size from 6 to 12 inches long, with diameters of 2-1/2” to 4” are attached to the free ends of the tubes. The bursts contain a colorless UV dye that glows in the selected color under UV light. Both UV and visible light color LEDs are embedded in each burst.  There are four sets of these assemblies as per above. At night a total of approximately one hundred fifty LEDs in the bursts will create a number of entrancing light effects using both UV LEDs (to excite the UV dye in the resin) and different color LEDs (see technical description of electronics  below).

Illumination/Light effects. Upon activation of the circuit by the microprocessor timer or the integrated motion detector: (a) Skyburst bursts will fluoresce, starting dimly and increasing in brightness for approximately 10 sec, then blink several times, go out for a period of time during the other light effects and then recycle at sporadic intervals; (b) “chasing” lights will move over the Skyburst bursts in lines and patterns and color areas, moving around and among the bursts utilizing both the UV LEDs and the visible light LEDs to create different qualitative light effects; (c) throbbing effects – LEDs slowly increasing in brightness for 6 sec, then decreasing in brightness for 6 sec, for perhaps 10 cycles; (d) pulsating/flashing – varying intensity up and down 1-2 secs; (e) brightness waves moving within different sections of the bursts, originating in different places and radiating out in different directions in the bursts; and (f) “twinkling” effects using very short interval programming to activate individual LEDs within each burst. These effects will continue for 5-10 min. and then shut down unless the motion detector reactivates the curcuit. At intervals of 2-3 minutes when the motion detector doesn't activate the circuit, short bursts of display (color, chasing lights and waves of lights) will be activated for approximately 2 minutes in order to catch passers-by attention and attract them to the sculpture.