Sun Boxes is a sound installation created by Craig Colorusso.
It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently each powered by solar panels. There is a different guitar sample in each box all playing together making the composition. The guitar samples are all of different lengths so the whole piece keeps evolving.
Participants are encouraged to walk amongst the speakers. It sounds different inside of the array. There is a different sense of space inside. Certain speakers will be closer and louder therefore the piece will sound different to different people in different positions throughout the array. Creating a unique experience for everyone.
There are no batteries involved. The Sun Boxes are reliant on the sun. When the sun sets the music stops. The piece changes as the length of the day changes making the participants aware of the cycle of the day.
It’s a very interesting idea. I would like to know how powerful each speaker is. 20 Watt? 50? or more?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jpr36qWg9J0
i like it very much: the idea first of all, but also the result (as far as i can imagine by the video, probably walking in it it’s another kind of perspective)
Yes. It seems to me that the whole installation creates a sort of B-flat chord with harmonics more or less emphasized according to the position of the listener.
Can you estimate the power that a single solar panel can drive? The mix is very different if the power of the single box is 10 W or 50.
In this video you can see that each box is about 50 cm in height (like one man’s knee), so the woofer could be about 7″…
I think could be interesting the overall effect of the distance on the intonation, you’re right.
Iti si not simple to know how much power they have, but i think they are not too expensive, and the should have a few power from the cells (look here for example: http://www.pannellisolari.info/pannelli_tipici_commerciali.htm), so i’m rather convinced that the power is more near to the 10w 🙂
the good news is probably that they have also som little bass frequencies from that diameter. Probably the mutual distance in a range of 1-3 meter is very important to shape the general perceptive acustic profile… what do you think of it?
I think you are right.
10W * 20 boxes in silent environment is a lot of power so, if the listener is far from the boxes, he should hear the whole sound with higher freqs attenuated by the air.
But, when the listener go near, the mutual distance and the orientation of speakers becomes very important.
This speakers are very directional and scattered on a large area so the position of the listener with respect to the single speaker has a great effect.
just as an update:
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35&products_id=200
these are smaller (i think half the size) and give a power of about 2w