Solar Bridge

The artist fnnch creates contemporary pop art, depicting objects from both nature and everyday life. His public work can be found from San Francisco to New York to Hong Kong, and in private collections in 48 states and 20 countries. For Burning Man 2024, fnnch designed a stunning color changing Solar Bridge. “The core idea of the installation was to make a piece in which solar panels were integrated into the artwork itself,” fnnch said. “Every solar powered piece I have seen at Burning Man has a solar array to the side of the sculpture. I wanted to do something that was self-contained — generation, storage and consumption all within a single artwork.” Signage lighting, fnnch realized, was best suited to his needs. “It is designed to be robust and power efficient,” he said. To overcome conditions in Nevada’s hot, dusty Black Rock Desert, the artist employed ULTRA 650 RGBA modules, 4 channel DMX controllers, two 180W 12V power supplies and one 60W 12V power supply from AgiLight to bring his vision to life. The modules are mounted about 5 inches (127 mm) from the twin-wall polycarbonate “sign” face for optimal color blending. AgiLight’s ULTRA 650 RGBA modules are rated IP66, which means the LEDs were fully protected from Burning Man’s dust and sand or any potential heavy rain. The light show included four two-minute patterns that ran continuously from sunset through sunrise: a slow rainbow progression, a pulsing amber, a series of color fades from the base to the top, and a warm white that slowly raised brightness levels across the arch. “The sculpture was totally successful in being self-contained,” fnnch said. “It required basically zero maintenance through the entire week. I am in discussions now about a potential next destination for the arch. Hopefully it will go up somewhere in San Francisco or beyond!”