My Sunshine

My Sunshine is a utopian project, suspended between art and science, visionary ideas and social issues, poetry and hyper - technology. Its aim is to produce a flying object that reflects sunlight to a specific area of Earth and appear as the Sun itself. A broader version of My Sunshine contemplates the production of several copies of the aerostat, which shall create the effect of multiple suns in the sky. The project concentrates on areas around the Arctic Circle where, due to the rotation of the Earth’s axis, during the winter the Sun stays below the horizon, its rays unable to illuminate the ground. This phenomenon has a massive influence on the emotional state and relational dynamics of the local population. The project itself consists of a open process that evolves through a extensive participation of the public, moving from the scientific community, astrophysicists, engineers, architects, to embrace whoever wishes to join in the realization of a dream called My Sunshine. My Sunshine was initiated in Trieste, Italy, where it received the European Emerging Artist Award, where a research in collaboration with the International Center for Theoretical Physics was made on the feasibility of the project. Later in the residency Pollinaria in Abruzzi, Italy, My Sunshine developed in a further phase, where the first prototype model was realized. In the winter 2008-2009 a test session was realized in Rovaniemi in collaboration with the University of Lapland. In the summer of 2009 It was presented as a National Pavilion of the Republic of Macedonia at the Venice Biennale, where a 4 meter diameter prototype was realized for the event. Until now there were produced various prototypes, but they were controlled manually, like a kite, which showed the desired effect for short time periods. The next stage is to develop a robotic system which can stabilize the mirror to maintain a position, and a propulsion system which can guide the aerostat trough the sky.