My roles: Concept Design, Electronics and Assembling, Performer
Date: Spring 2015
Created to humanize the idea of energy, the Solar Power Man project is a social performance intended to reflect upon the sources of the energy we constantly consume.
The piece is centered on the figure of a strange being with solar powered armor, a battery on his heart and different charging plugs on his fingers.
As the Solar Power Man absorbs the energy from the sun, he offers his hand to someone who needs to charge his or her phone. When fully charged, Solar Power Man can become very excited and dance around. When his battery gets discharged, he needs some time to rest under the sun and acquire new power.
The first reaction
The first performance took place in Washington Park in New York City. The character attracted a lot of curiosity. People stopped in the middle of the street and took pictures. The character approached people to offer power without talking. Some were intimidated by his appearance, but a lot of people gave him their phone to be charged and expressed surprise when they realized that the character could really charge their phones. Reactions such as “OMG, it’s really charging my phone!” were repeated by people.
Charging people
The assumption that people would not understand the functionality of Solar Power Man (not being familiar with the voltaic cells) was easily eliminated by chance when a street singer improvised a whole piece of music entitled “Give it to Solar Power Man” for our character.
After debating many different names for the project with my creative partner, Oryan Inbar, it so happened that the people of the park had already chosen a name for it thanks to that street singer who naturally referred to the character as the Solar Power Man.
Credits
Made in collaboration with Oryan Ibar