It's About Time

TIME

It's about time. Arcs of light trace the diurnal path of the sun for the first six months of 2020. Each curve of the solargraph denotes a day's timeline.

A tree in the foreground interrupts the solar paths, with low arcs in the winter and high arcs in the summer. Emerging like a shark fin in silhouette, a straight-edge gnomon casts its shadow across a sundial. The rising sun clearly moves northward along the eastern horizon from December solstice to June solstice.

ECONOMY

It's about time we open the economy by stopping the cause for closure--the coronavirus. Our actions and leadership currently don't demonstrate much of a wartime footing.

The solargraph shows the first months of the coronavirus' presence, including months people committed to "flattening the curve" (it already seems a distant phrase). During our time spent in isolation, the sun marched on. At the uppermost solar arc, June 19, the hotel on which this solargraph was mounted reopened to the public.

A tower atop Aloft hotel bisects a solargraph in South Bend, IN

JUSTICE

It's about time Black Lives Matter. The sun shines on us all. Opportunity doesn't.

A city's once-segregated natatorium, framed by the solar arcs of 2020, is now a learning center for civil rights. Juxtaposed below it is a cell phone camera's panorama of the site. The solar arcs peak on Juneteenth, when the solargraph can was removed.

CLIMATE

It's about time we address the science of climate. It can be a stark future when nature is unabated, approaching a runaway greenhouse like a virus that no vaccine can touch. Climate woe is like our political disfunction--we made this mess, now we sleep in it. Let's clean it up.

SOLAR ENERGY

It's about time we capture the sun at businesses and homes to offset or lessen our energy consumption. A solargraph placed in a school window continued capture the sun while school was closed early for coronavirus and the ensuing spring months.

Atop a distant pole barn, left of center, an array of solar panels provide energy for the metered parish building, center. While not all days are clear and sunny, the cumulative sunshine over a year yields a financial return on the investment .