Virtual Sun No. 0025

An aluminium housing was coated with linseed oil and heated to the edge of its melting point. The metal buckled, the oil burned into the surface, and thin-film interference left rainbow traces across the darkened skin.

Behind the Fresnel lens, a high-spectrum LED, reproducing the visible spectrum of sunlight, resolves into a disc of light that drifts as the viewer moves. The housing carries the trace of real heat; the sun inside only simulates it.

The burnt oil breaks light into the spectrum the LED imitates.