15 m

3 m

15 m

Solartarium Obscrua is an experimental structure that explores our perception of our surroundings and the changing solar path through the summer. Built as a cam-era obscura, Solartarium Obscura will project images of the outdoor surroundings into a darkened interior space in real time. Immediately upon leaving the outdoors and stepping over the threshold into the darkened interior, the world as we see it is fl ipped upside down.

The mechanism of a camera obscura has long been known; the projected image is by principle upside-down, like a single lens refl ex camera. Similar in shape and feel-ing to a planetarium, Solartarium Obscura is round like our view of the horizon, as well as the shape of our eyes. Leonardo da Vinci observed that the human eye worked much like the camera obscura, in that the human eye perceives the world up-side-down. Solartarium takes the visitor back to our initial perception of the environment around us, encouraging us to reinvent the way the world looks. Being inside the camera obscura allows one to vi-sualize what the world would be like if our brains did not reverse the imagery our eyes take in.

Positioned to provide fore-, mid- and background views of the garden plot, Solartarium Obscura is centred on the site, adjacent to woodlands and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. The garden plot will be graded and planted with grasses and wildfl owers to provide immediate fore-ground projections, with mid- and background images of adjacent tree canopy and the horizon. Additionally, the solar path at its highest point, the summer solstice (June 21, opening day), will be traced onto the interior, along with the changing path as summer wanes through the festival months, with the sun rising and setting farther south. The dynamic outdoor environment is revealed to visitors by the interior structure as well as by the images projected from the exterior. When in the forest one nor-mally walks amongst the tree trunks, in Solartarium Ob-scrua one is given the opportunity to stand amongst the tree tops.

Solartarium Obscura

AUG21

JULY 21

JUNE 21

SEPT 21

EQUINOX

SUMMERSOLSTICE

48°

NS

S

W E

N

E

JUNE

21

SEPT 21

POLARIS

3 m diameter

S

N

50°60°60° 38°

SEPT 1 - 30(AUTUMNAL EQUINOX 42°)

65°65°64° 50°

AUG 1 - 31JULY 1 - 31JUNE 1 - 30(SUMMER SOLSTICE 65°)

HIGHEST POINT OF SUN: JUNE THROUGH SEPTEMBER

camera obscura interior plan

tall grasses (little bluestem)

wildfl owers(milkweed)

wildfl owers(echinacea)

short grasses(prairie dropseed)

camera obscura

entrance

mulch path

camera obscura refl ected ceiling plan:showing stenciled path of the sun at summer solstice and exquinox

time-lapse photograph depicting the sun’s path over a year

path of sun at specifi c times over the summer

plan of camera obscura in site 1:100

A variety of projected views are created by varying the height of the openings across the structure’s sur-face. These openings will be tagged by subject, date, and astronomical signifi cance (i.e. summer solstice). Visitors have the option of choosing their views based on descriptions, and can conceal or reveal views while inside the camera obscura. Seating will be integrated with the projections to heighten and support the experience of viewing upside-down images.

TOP LEVEL: existing trees, tall grasses (little bluestem, birches, pines and maples)

diagram of a camera obscura and how it works close-up diagram of image seen through a camera obscura

Exterior waterproof layer - light-weight sail cloth, water repellent

Structure - wooden dowels formed into lattice-work

Blackout cloth - cloth that light cannot penetrate

Interior projection surface - white semi-refl ective projection screen material

Pinhole opening 3

Pinhole opening 2

Pinhole opening 1

Radiating Layers of Plantings

Spring/Summer Summer/Fall

Diagramatic section through Camera Obscura

LOW LEVEL: short grasses (prarie dropseed)

MID LEVEL: wild fl owers (echinacea and milkweed)

Right: Interior view pinhole #2