Seeing and hearing Sun Boxes

With Earth Week coming to PSU for its fourth year, some events such as Earth Jam have become a tradition to look forward to. This year, Common Ground has added a unique solar flare to this year. On Mon., April 18 a new, unique structure will be ringing through the Alumni Green in front of the HUB on campus. Massachusetts light and music sculpture artist, Craig Colorusso, will be presenting his Sun Box sculpture to the student body. 

Never heard of a Sun Box before? Colorusso's twenty-piece sculpture contains solar panels and amplifiers; each with different guitar notes and lengths recorded into them. The notes are programmed to play in a continuous loop and rely on the sun to charge and play the twenty different guitar notes. Consequently, if the day is cloudy the sound loops will play differently than on a very sunny day. This means that every day the Sun Boxes sound different and the notes overlap and the sound slowly evolves over time. 

The experience is said to be both soothing and energizing as the composition is never the same. With this creation Colorusso asks society to slow down and remember: "We are all reliant on the sun. It is refreshing to be reminded of this. Our lives

have filled up with technology. But we still need the sun and so does sun boxes" according to an interview with the Design Boom website.

In order to achieve the full experience of the Sun Boxes the listener is asked to walk around the structure and listen. As one speaker is closer to the listener it will be louder resulting in one sound and effect. Another listener on the other side of the Sun Boxes may hear the structure very differently with other boxes nearer to their ears. The Sun Boxes allow each listener to experience different sound. 

Colorusso compares the structure to that of a metropolis. He described his project to Design Boom as: "A burst of technology in the middle of nature. Unlike most cities I have been to, it does not just take over the space. Instead ‘sun boxes' interfaces with the environment and collaborates with nature. It is the perfect combination of technology and nature that create art, an environment, and a metropolis."

If you'd like to hear or see more about Sun Boxes before they come to the Alumni Green at Plymouth on Monday you can check out more information at sun-boxes.com. Videos of the Sun Boxes are also available on YouTube. Craig Colorusso's light and sound structures will be out for everyone to enjoy, listen and relax to in order to celebrate Earth Week.