Self-taught sculptor Charlie Gadeken likes to play with fire, as evidenced by his blazing body of blowtorch artwork. But for his latest piece, Aurora, the San Francisco-based kinetic wizard has chosen LEDs to light up a massive tree that's programmed to mutate colors from day to night.

How ambitious is Gadeken? Here's his description of Aurora, a sculpture reminiscent of Avatar's bioluminescent Tree of Souls that will be unveiled at this year's Burning Man festival: "It's a weeping willow tree that's 35 feet tall with a 45-foot canopy," Gadeken told Wired.com in an e-mail....