spaceport america sundial public art project
The Art in Public Places Program of New Mexico Arts at the NM Department of Cultural Affairs (NMDCA), in collaboration with Spaceport America seek an artist/artist team to create a public art sundial – a functional work of art. The sundial artwork will be installed outside the newly built STARC (Spaceport Technology and Reception Center) at Spaceport America, an earthbound but aspirational space dedicated to inquiry in the high desert southwest of New Mexico. The intent of the sundial is to creatively represent the origins of measurement and human curiosity.
At its essence, a sundial is a chronometric device that translates Earth’s rotation into a visual, accurate representation of time. By intercepting the sun’s rays, it uses the position and length of a shadow to indicate the hour, essentially serving as a bridge between celestial mechanics and terrestrial life. Sundials are at least 3,500 years old.
In this installation, the sundial acts as a functional work of art, reminding us that time is not merely a digital abstraction but a physical consequence of humanity’s journey through the solar system. It connects the cosmos, the blue sky, the sun, and the vast, beautiful Jornada de Muerto basin to the mechanical and tactile realism of Spaceport America. It should evoke curiosity and wonder.
A sundial is the ancestor of the clock, the calendar, and the computer. It is one of humankind’s first attempts to understand the universe. People in New Mexico, no matter who they are or when they live, have always honored the workings of the cosmos.
Interactivity: More than just a work of art, a sundial invites the observer to engage with the environment and with time itself. It highlights the changing seasons through the shifting length of the shadow – long and sweeping in winter, short and sharp in summer. It should spark curiosity about cosmic motions.
Symbolism: It stands as a monument to constancy. While technology evolves, the relationship between the sun and the Earth remains the most reliable metronome in human history. A sundial attests to both the motion of the Earth in relation to the sun and the consistency of that motion over the centuries.
Artistry: The artist/artist team has the choice of evoking other feelings and emotions about time, space, technology, the vast desert and sky, and the human condition, as we reach for the stars at New Mexico’s Spaceport.
A sundial consists of two fundamental components that work in tandem:
The Gnomon: Derived from the Greek word for “one who knows,” the gnomon is the vertical or angled element that casts the shadow. In a scientifically accurate installation, the gnomon’s angle is typically set to the latitude of its location, aligning it parallel to the Earth’s axis of rotation.
The Dial Plate: The surface onto which the shadow is cast. This plate is inscribed with hour lines and, often, seasonal markets. As the sun moves across the sky from east to west, the shadow moves across the plate in the opposite direction. During the peak of the sun’s arc, the sundial will indicate the solar noon.
Artists may interpret these elements as they see fit to fulfill their artistic vision, while maintaining the elements that would keep this artwork a functioning sundial.
The intent of this open competition is to select finalists that demonstrate highly unique and creative expressions of historical and/or scientific objects and their functions, while evoking a sense of wonder by the viewer. The high desert open landscape invites experimental but functional approaches to this important object of measurement.