The 2008 Nexus Fire installation by Erin Banwell, Josh Silverstein, Al Traves.

The Fire cauldron was the center piece of the 2008 Nexus fire installation:

A 7 ft diameter, half sphere pool of water with   fire bubbling up out of the murky depths.

It became a gathering spot.

Heat seekers came….

Conversationalists came……..

Some people showed up with a bag of hot dogs and a long stick and proceeded to make dinner…

One guy decided to go for a little swim………. while the fire was lit…………………..go figure.

The Fire Cauldron made an appearance at the South Lake Tahoe decom party, where it provided warmth, light, and good place to conversate for about 250.

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Coming to a Burning Man 2010 near you…

The Nexus PyroSphere

The PyroSphere is a 22 ft diameter geodesic sphere, elevated on five 15 ft legs for a total hieght of  37 ft. The sphere itself has 92 flame effect valves, each located at one of the sphere’s 92 vertices. Each flame effect valve is an 1/8 inch solenoid (electronic) valve, which emits a small, 3 to 4 ft fire ball. Each of the 92 valves is controlled individually by a microcontroller, creating a “persistence of vision” illusion similiar to the Burninator installation of 2009, only spread out over the surface of a sphere, creating 3 dimensional fire animations. Directly below the sphere, sits a 6 ft diameter clear bowl full of water. LEDs light up the water from below, as  it bubbles fire, creating a camp fire style gathering area.
In it’s essence, the PyroSphere is a gathering place. A place of warmth, and conversation. The PyroSphere’s dramatic silhouette combined with hundreds of elaborate, rapid fire patterns, will be visible from far across the playa.
Interactivity:
The PyroSphere’s patterns will be designed by the masses! Mark Pauley aka: Pauley Unsaturated , who works for Apple, programming Safari among other things, is finishing up the “PyroSphere Editor”: a simple program hosted on the web that allows the user to make patterns for the PyroSphere. The user selects which flame effect valves fire off, and in what order, etc with a simple, visual, point-and-click interface. When the user is finished with their pattern, the Editor outputs a 3d animation which is viewable by anyone visiting the site. People view the pattern animations, and rate them from 1 to 10. The most popular patterns will be assigned a pattern number and used on the playa, and the creators of these patterns will be emailed the number of their pattern so they can request it from the PyroSphere Operator at any time during operation on the playa. The PyroSphere editor will be widely publicized well before the event, to allow as many people as possible an opportunity to contribute.

Click on the images below for PyroSphere Updates

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

The Pyrosphere Crew:

Erin Banwell: Artist/creator, design, management, R&D, flame effect expert, electronics, junior programmer, foreman, etc.

Steve Cronburg: Lead programmer, R&D, electronics, design

Nathan Crane: Flame effect expert, Fuel plumbing, design

Robert Cordtz: Sphere construction manager, visionary

Vaughn Parsons: Expert brainstormer, resident wise guy, any job that entails bloody knuckles….

Mark Pauley: iPhone App programmer

Josh Silverstein: Organizer, motivator, crew management

Chris Nowak: Base design and construction

Chris Pomodoro: Architectural design

Donate to Help Our Crew Build the Pyrosphere 2010!

Every little bit helps…