About this project

About AURORA

A weeping willow tree towers 30 feet in the air as a giant oasis on the horizon. Made of steel with brilliant copper leaves, it will dazzle its viewers by day reflecting sunlight dancing out across the desert. Once in her draping branches, AURORA provides a place to meet and commune in the cooling shade. It will also offer benches to sit on and exchange conversation and ideas. 

At night, AURORA transforms into a place of light and color. Each of the 200 branches contain 75 RGB LEDs, providing sweeping color bringing the tree to life as it responds to the sounds around it, alive as ever. Participants within the body of the tree also give the tree life by touching the hand build sensors that will create short pulses tuned to the individuals heartbeat. It is almost as if the tree and the participants are one. Bands of light pass around the tree: greens, yellows, reds and ambers - a dazzling show that constantly changes as the tree moves through the seasons of its life. The lights will be slightly diffused as to not overwhelm, but create an inviting environment.

The trunk of the tree is over eight feet in diameter, with its roots extending out twenty feet in all directions creating a 40' canopy. The trunk tapers, as it rises, divide again and again, finally ending in delicate branches. Each delicate branch is adorned with copper leaves that have been individually hand pounded. The truck of the tree is both solid and transparent, created from stainless steel tubing bent in sinuous lines that flow up the tree; joined together in a spider web from thousands of hand curved stainless steel rods. The roots rise in and out of the ground, creating resting places and benches for people to sit on and under. 4,000 copper leaves ripple as the wind blows through the branches creating not only a visual beauty but a kinetic one as well.

The LEDs never blink, but slowly fade through the color spectrum or sequenced through the audio input occasionally listening to the sounds around it and bursting into life. The LEDs are very sensitive to the life around them and respond as such. With a constant state of the lights color blending seamlessly, highlighting the elegance of the weeping willow tree. Individual effects buttons will create short bursts of lighting effects. These sensors are totally interactive with the participants. There will be one sensor on each of the five roots that relate to the five main branches of the tree with additional effects buttons scattered around the base and roots of the tree. 

And as the night quiets the LEDs will respond with a slow fading radiance bringing the morning on with a quiet beauty.

The real idea of our kickstarter campaign is to bring Aurora to a city near you! To do this we would need the extra money to make the electrical co-compliant in an urban environment. We would ultimately like the money we generate from the kickstarter program to bring a luminescent sculpture to a city near you.