Autumn 2011 Issue - University of Central Lancashire

28 Conference Reviews
Sunbeam: 9th to 12th May 2011
Sunbeam Project team:
(L to R) Dr Robert Walsh, Stephane Regnier,
Chris Meigh-Andrews and David Henckel.
could affect power transmission and
communications here on Earth.
Sunbeam in May was possibly a unique event
for the University bringing together
contemporary electronic art, cutting edge
solar research, and state of the art
technology. Chris Meigh-Andrews, Professor
of Electronic and Digital Art and Dr Robert
Walsh, Director of Research at UCLan have
come together in collaboration which uses
one of UCLan’s tracking solar panels. The
solar trackers located between Allen Building
and Harrington Car Park are designed to
follow the position of the Sun. Each tracker
comprises 30 solar panels, which should
generate about 5.4 MWh of energy per year
and save 3.1 tonnes of CO2. The trackers are
about 40% more efficient than panels that
are mounted on a static frame. The trackers,
which are believed to be unique in the UK
were installed by Facilities Management and
Energi Plc with support from BRE’s Low
Carbon Building Programme.
Robert Walsh’s area of research is solar
physics and has been instrumental in
working with NASA to make UCLan the
European data hub for the solar images from
the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). An
image is taken every 10 seconds at very high
resolution and across a range of
wavelengths. These images are used by solar
physicists across the globe to understand the
processes taking place on our Sun and to act
as an early warning of out bursts which
Sunbeam was a project by Chris Meigh-
Andrews with assistance from Dr. Stephane
Regnier and David Henckel. It was the latest
in a series of projects by Chris Meigh-
Andrews over the years, which have involved
the use of renewable energy technology as
both subject and the power source, for
example Perpetual Motion from 1994, Fire,
Ice and Steam, from 1995, Mothlight in
1998, and Resurrection from 2005/6. For this
project, sequences of images of the Sun
taken from the SDO were projected onto one
of the solar tracker platforms. The artwork
represents both the energy of the Sun and
displays its effects by using the energy to
make the projected image possible.
References
Bataille G. (1991), The Accursed Share,
vol. 1 (New York: Zone Books)
Gere C. (2011), http://www.meighandrews.com/archives/2569,
accessed
27 June 2011
>
Sunbeam in May was possibly a unique event for
the University bringing together contemporary
electronic art, cutting edge solar research, and
state of the art technology.