Aurora the Willow on Kickstarter

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AURORA, a 2011 Honorarium installation by Charles Gadeken

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.

At night, AURORA transforms into a place of light and color with 15,000 3-color LEDs embedded into branches that depict seasonal changes: spring, summer, fall and winter.



Charles is a founding member of the Flaming Lotus Girls and has helped the group create their fiery art for the last 7 years. Charles creates beautiful sculptures that incorporate mixed metals, interactive and kinetic elements, and light and fire. All his sculptures change and enhance the environment in which they are shown, and invite the viewer to not only behold the art as spectacle, but also engage in it as a sensory experience.

We are asking the Burning Man community to help us with our supplemental fundraising efforts to help bring this spectacular piece to the playa and beyond.

Please visit our Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aur ... the-willow

Heartfelt thanks and gratitude,

The Aurora Team

WIRED article: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/aurora/?pid=4160
Charles Gadeken : Aurora: http://www.charlesgadeken.com/art/aurora
Aurora Home Page: http://aurorathewillow.com/

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THANK YOU for supporting Aurora!

We are over 6 / tenths of the way there!

Check out the progress on Kickstarter...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aur ... the-willow

Soon....

[Minxy]

That sure is pretty!!

[oscillator]

Thank you for supporting Aurora!

We are over 3/4ths of the way to our funding goal. Check it out! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aurora/aurora-the-willow/posts

Crunch Mode, a term near and dear to most creative projects, perhaps you have heard of it? All the months of planning are coming into focus as we enter the main build phase of this spectacular piece. Aurora will be absolutely amazing and we hope a big part of your Alkaline Dreams.

Nearly all of the principle mechanical and electronic components are in-house and we are really getting traction on Aurora's realization. As much fun it would be, we have not yet had to leg wrestle the Flaming Lotus Girls for space at the Box Shop where both Aurora and Tympani Lambada are being built.

Again, thanks for supporting Aurora, we are less than $2500 from reaching our funding goal. In case you didn't know, this is an 'all-or-nothing' deal, so we can use all the help we can get.

in dust,

The Aurora Team

[Major Krash]

bump...

(Howdy Oscillator! be sure to swing by for a beverage this year)

[oscillator]

So glad you are making it out!

BTW, we are placed @ 3:30/Espl, just a grenade's throw from Terminal City.

Oh, and am bring that Birch-infused rooskie vodka the Kernal enjoys so much.

/Osc

[theCryptofishist]

So glad you are making it out!

BTW, we are placed @ 3:30/Espl, just a grenade's throw from Terminal City.

Oh, and am bring that Birch-infused rooskie vodka the Kernal enjoys so much.

/Osc

I guess I should bring stones.

[Major Krash]

So glad you are making it out!

BTW, we are placed @ 3:30/Espl, just a grenade's throw from Terminal City.

Oh, and am bring that Birch-infused rooskie vodka the Kernal enjoys so much.

/Osc

I guess I should bring stones.

I am shocked - it is not like you to bring stones to a grenade toss...

[oscillator]

We are only $1800 away from the funding goal, with 16 days to go!

So Close! Thank you, Thank you.

[oscillator]

Thank you! Thank You!! THANK YOU!!!

We reached our funding goal and cannot thank you enough. We can still accept donations so please help us get the word out. Every penny counts.

Check out the progress...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aur ... the-willow

[jenkalea]

Beautiful project! And another success story for Kickstarter.

[oscillator]

We Are Done!

Aurora is locked & loaded, ready for TTITD. We are placed @ 4:30 btwn Espl and the Man, kinda hard to miss: One 30' x 40' steel Willow tree, 190 silver branches, 4,200 hand-made copper leaves, 3400 watts and 39,330 blinkies for your viewing pleasure.

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Join us on Tues evening, after sunset, for an Aurora Party .

It will be pretty mellow after dark, then later that night Robot Heart rolls up to get things crankin!

/Osc, on behalf of the Aurora Team

[oscillator]

A Most Excellent Burn!

On behalf of the Aurora Team, I hope you enjoyed the Willow Tree-in-the-Desert as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelholden/6104315605/

/Osc

[Ano]

Conversation between me and my friend, approaching the Willow, Saturday night -

"Hey... Man, look at that tree."

"Yeah, that's one hell of a fuckin' tree."

"That tree definitely took something good tonight."

"You kidding me? That tree is tripping face right now. Lets go look at it!"

And so we did.

And so ends another tale in Black Rock City.

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"That tree definitely took something good tonight."

Ha!

We started out the week with slow animations, then increased them nightly.

Burn night we cranked it up to Eleven. One Brighter.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[C.f.M.]

I actually enjoyed it before the gates opened, listening to the tinkling of the metal in the peace and quiet.

[junglesmacks]

This was hands down my favorite installation this year. Such incredible work!! Wow.

I'm very curious what you'll be doing with it afterwards? I'm hoping that it becomes a permanent installation somewhere?

[Sic Pup]

This was awesome, the only thing I can think of that would've improved on it would be a tea party underneath it

Now THAT was mindblowing (and very touching).

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... the only thing I can think of that would've improved on it would be a tea party underneath it ...

Charlie's 3-year old daughter hosted a tea party at noon on Burn Day. I think there were 5-6 kids in attendance.

Fortunately no one went down the rabbit hole.

[illy dilly]

Your tree was BEAUTIFUL!
The sounds it made while standing under it were incredible!

Was the low hum and clanking of the metal planned or just and added bonus?
With our whole entire camp this was one of our favorite pieces of art this year!

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Thank you!

Charlie designed the leaf attachments to emulate willow leaf behaviour - so the leaves were free to pivot and tinkle in the wind.

We got lots of comments about how the piece sounded. Now, if we could only perfect our ooontz/dubstep deflection technology currently in development.

(Just kidding, we love Robot Heart and Deco bus)

Next stop for Aurora: Nocturnal & Escape Wonderland, east of Los Angeles in late Sept & Oct.