Cubatron Cone

For Burning Man 2007

STATUS

We tried to setup the Cubatron Cone at BM 2007. On the Friday night before, we got the 20 ft tall center pole erected, and staked it down temporarily, expecting to come back the next morning to finish putting up the rest of the structure and supports. However, a strong wind storm that night loosened some stakes, and the pole fell over. Some wooden parts cracked and some pipe threads sheared off in their couplers. Due to this damage we were unable to finish the Cone, and instead put up the Big Round Cubatron, physically similar to last years, but with much updated visual effects.

OVERVIEW

This is a plan to bring back a modified version of the Big Round Cubatron as seen at Burning Man 2006. Some of the expenses are being funded by a Burning Man Art Grant.

The biggest change will be to raise the center of the Cubatron by 10 feet so that the lights tilt up from the outer edges towards the center. This will make the Cubatron taller, and allow people to go underneath. Other changes include: add another row of lights in the vertical direction, redesign structure and electronics to make setup easier, update and create new graphics effects, and elimination of rarely used scaffolding tower.

Cubatron Cone Simulation

The Cubatron Cone is a large scale 3-dimensional dynamic light sculpture. It is a cone shaped array of lights 40 feet in diameter and 20 feet high. It consists of 28 spokes, each of which is 24 lights long by 10 lights high. Each light is independently controllable to display any color and brightness level and the entire display can be updated 50 times per second. There are 6720 total lights (28 * 24 * 10).

Big Round Cubatron from 2006

photo by herby_fr

ARTIST

Mark Lottor
gmail.com: lottor

Attended Burning Man since 1999.

Previous work

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE

structure of Big Round Cubatron from 2006, the Cubatron Cone will be similar but the center pole will be 20 feet high

The physical structure that holds up the lights consists a central pole, and circular wall of poles held up by guy wires. The lights are strung horizontally and from the center down to the outer posts. 14 large stakes are placed in the ground for the guy wires. The structure is 40 feet in diameter and 20 feet high. With the guy wires the diameter is 60 feet.

LIGHTS

Last year the BRC was 28 spokes consisting of 9 lights high by 24 lights long. This year the height will be increased from 9 to 10 lights. So there will be 28*10*24 = 6720 lights (from 6048 last year).

ELECTRONICS & SOFTWARE

The control system is an updated version of the one used last year. A number of changes are being made to simplify the wiring and reduce the setup time (last year 8 people were needed for setup and teardown, this year it should be 5 or less). With the additional lights, an extra controller will be needed (5 instead of the 4 used last year).

The software and effects are the heart of the project. Most of the time working on this project will be writing patterns and effects and testing them using a graphics simulator that runs on a PC. The effects will include many from last year, updated and enhanced, and a number of newer effects. We will also try some new techniques such as low resolution digitized video.

EXPERIENCE

The sculpture will be running every night from sunset to sunrise. It will display an assortment of different effects. We will vary the show every few nights and make adjustments as the week progresses.

SOLAR POWER

The total power required if everything is at maximum brightness is around 5000W. This is higher than last year due to the extra light strings being added.

Power will be provided by Snow Koan Camp (EE Solar), the same group that supplied the BRC with solar power last year. They will be providing 12 solar panels, a bank of 16 batteries, charge controllers and a timer switch. We will not bring a generator this year as a backup, so we will be highly dependent on them for the solar installation working.

CREW

playa setup
Andrew Arrasmith
Li-Yun Hsiao
Ron Austin

technical consultant
Tsutomu Shimomura

work crew (pre-playa)
Courtney Ham
Diana Maxwell
Marian Hofer

solar installation
Matthew Fassberg
William Korthof
Nick Vida