Light to Solar Sails is an installation designed to educate and ignite conversation around space exploration. The installation tells a story of solar sails, which are lightweight space crafts that are propelled by light. This could be used to survey beyond our solar system.

The installation is made up of a big screen motion video and 3 light boxes with projectors. Much like how solar sails are powered by light, the light of the projectors is what powers the exhibition, ultimately bring light to the subject.

The 3 light boxes accompanied by the motion video behind, tell a story of a character learning about solar sails. The boxes are broken up into: Box 1 “Distant Planets” here we are introduced to Proxima B a planet that could potentially host life.

Box 2 “Solar Sails” which could reach up to 20% the speed of light and our way of reaching these far planets. Box 3 “The Future”, we finish the story by outlining how important it is to explore the stars and that it’s our responsibility.

This was a solo project that spanned over 16 weeks, the initial stages were research based then into production. The creation of this project had many moving parts all worked on simultaneously. The build of 3 light boxes with vinyl sign writing. The projection mapping inside the box here a projector sits in a frame at the base of the box and casts its projection onto the underside of the canvas bleeding through to the outside for the audience to view. 

The canvas has print media that made for an interesting blend when layering motion graphics from the projectors. The layout of these projected graphics took a lot of trial and error in order to line up with the print on the canvas. The motion piece is an exaggerated and light hearted story of a character in space coming into contact with a laser then becoming a solar sail and travelling to a distant planet. The character’s curiosity is what leads him to a new planet. Our collective curiosity in space is what could power the next revolution of space exploration.