A Second Solar Constant

Installation, Light-tubes, 2026

Behind a diffusing layer, an artificial double of the Sun appears, activating at the moment the real source sinks below the horizon. It remains suspended, low above the horizon of the street, as if the Sun had paused shortly after rising or just before setting – as if a light condition that normally lasts only a few minutes could be technically extended across an entire evening. Its seemingly unchanging state depends on a continuous supply of electrical energy and lasts only as long as the system keeps consuming it.

The solar constant – approximately 1,361 watts per square metre is, despite its name, not constant; the value of total solar irradiance fluctuates slightly with solar activity, just as the place where the perception of sunlight arises is not entirely stable. With eyes closed, radiation passes through the eyelids and their vascular system, shifting its spectral composition and producing on the retina a red field, flashes and moving structures in which the external source merges with the physiology of the eye itself.

Text by Lamija Čehajić

Photo by Tomáš Jakubec