Apex
of
Azure
The Project
45 hand-painted plexiglass panels featuring intricate water and sky patterns created with inks and epoxy
An interactive installation, Apex of Azure (AoA) allows viewers to walk around a dynamic painting, by using transparency, lights, and structural design. Resembling a futuristic stained-glass pyramid, light passes through the panels to create a multi-layered painting. Sensors, recessed LEDs, and blue flame effect add visual interactivity. Apex of Azure is a Burning Man Honorarium piece.
New ADDITIONS
Flame Effects
Four continuous flames emerge from 5-foot venturi pipe burners along the top of each wing, complemented by a poofer at the apex. We achieve the blue hue by controlling the oxygen-propane mix at (~5:1). In the venturis, a specialized orifice pressurizes the propane, creating a vacuum that draws in additional air through side openings. For the poofer, we've designed a perforated cap for the pipe that pressurizes the propane, enhancing oxygen intake as it exits the pipe and ignites into a ball of flame.
Sensor Interactivity
As participants enter, 4 handprints with touch sensors invite collaboration to activate a fire poofer at the apex.
Engineering and Construction
An interactive installation, Apex of Azure (AoA) allows viewers to walk around a dynamic painting, by using transparency, lights, and structural design. Resembling a futuristic stained-glass pyramid, light passes through the panels to create a multi-layered painting. Sensors, recessed LEDs, and fire add visual effects and interactivity.
Philosophy
This piece features relatively unexplored materials and techniques for the playa. Rather than wood or metal, the AoA uses inks, plexiglass, and the bright light of the desert (or LEDs) to depict water and sky; these fluid and shapeless elements are contained within the pyramid, but are not limited by its shape thanks to the panels’ transparency. As a result, viewers can get lost in the paintings visually the way we sometimes lose ourselves while swimming, or walking through a beam of sunlight. For BM 2024, I would like to use interactive lighting and flame effects to increase that feeling of immersion and wonder.