Make: Solar Circuits for Artists

Front Cover
Make Community, LLC, Sep 30, 2026 - Art - 280 pages

Unplug and embrace creativity powered by the sun!





Solar Circuits for Artists is the only guide to designing and building art and education projects with photovoltaic solar power. Multimedia engineer and New York University adjunct professor Alex Nathanson teaches readers not just the technical aspects of controlling solar power through 30 intriguing experiments and projects, but how to work with natural light and shadow to create art that's harmonious with nature.



The author leverages over a decade of solar art experience to teach simple, playful, and clever ways to use solar power for creative expression. Projects include sound, light, and motion devices such as musical instruments, simple robots, and drawing machines. The projects are designed to be constructed from a wide range of materials and tools--making them particularly accessible for learners of all ages--with varying skill levels and resources.





In addition to teaching readers about solar power and the specific steps required for the featured projects, Solar Circuits for Artists aims to give people the skills to remix these projects or design their own so they can apply them in their own art, design, and teaching practices.

About the author (2026)

Alex Nathanson is the founder and lead designer of the education platform Solar Power for Artists and its sibling design studio Energy Transition Design LLC, organizations designed to make sustainable energy accessible, tactile, and understandable. Nathanson is an adjunct professor at New York University Tandon School of Engineering, and has given talks on solar power art and design at MoMA, The Solar Biennale, Eyeo Festival, Ars Electronica, Caltech, and Harvard Graduate School of Education. His artwork has been featured at Issue Project Room, the Museum of the Moving Image, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Aros Aarhus Art Museum, and the Art Prospect Festival. He lives in New York.

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