8 Conceptual Background
Spiral Sunrise is intended as a visualization of our environment as one that is ruled by balances of energy. The work seeks an association with the hour glass – an age-old symbol of “vanitas”, and the progress of time.
Spiral Sunrise is also positioned within the history of work popularly known as ‘Land Art’, for example Robert Smithons Spiral Jetty, or the Dutch artist Gerrit van Bakel who designed small robots that run on temperature difference between day and night.
Spiral Sunrise is Polak and van Bekkums second sand-robot. Before they have developed and worked with a robot that draws sand patters based on GPS data. The first robot was designed to present GPS data in a tangible manner, in public space.
During this process, the potential of sand drawing as temporary graffiti has grown in their mind, and was developed further in Spiral Sunrise.
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