Free Sunshine!
Free Sunshine! in collaboration with artist Miranda Moss was an intervention and installation as part of ISEA 2018 (International Symposium on Electronic Arts) in Durban, South Africa. It included a temporary electronics lab offering free solar-powered robotics workshops to the public, with a particular focus on teenagers from disadvantaged schools.
The project originated in response to Eskom and Nersa's announcement of rules requiring all small scale energy generators, even under 1 kiloWatt, to be registered - which also involves a fee. As this includes sustainable energy systems such as solar and wind power, the swarm of sun-powered g☼ggab☼ts¹ made during the workshops were used as demonstrators against problematic energy regulation and service.
The first round of workshops and installation took place in Durban, as part of ISEA 2018, within the context of the exhibition Life Hacking.
Another round of workshops followed at a school in Baleni, in rural South Africa. In total, over 350 g☼ggab☼ts were made.
The workshops were concluded with an epic solar-powered robot race.
1. Gogga – South African. From Khoikhoi “xoxon”: insects
Free Sunshine! was made possible with the support from Pro Helvetia, the Swiss National Arts Council.
For more see the project website freesunshine.org.
Even more details, pamphlets and pcb-files on GitHub.
