Eight years later, promoted by ISES ITALIA, New Light on Rome by Peter Erskine was held in Rome in the year 2000.

The exhibition was part of the ISES Millennium Solar Forum, a series of scientific and cultural events promoted by ISES to mark, at the beginning of a new Millennium, the importance of solar energy, in particular:

• To illustrate that the sun has always been a source of energy, creativity and inspiration;

• To make use of the high potential inherent in artistic work for promoting solar energy applications;

• To bring new cultural dimensions to the field of solar energy which is primarily dominated by the approaches in use by scientists, technologists and business people;

• To benefit solar energy technology applications with the vision of artists;

• To promote contemporary art and design, inspired by the sun and the latest scientific discoveries and technological developments in solar energy.

As in Secrets of the Sun, also in "New Light on Rome 2000," the medium used by Erskine was not paint, but the solar spectrum, which in this case, however, was not produced by active systems, such as those used for Secrets of the Sun, but by passive systems, that included laser-cut prisms to receive and to catch the sunlight at various openings of the monument (Ilsolea360gradi 2000).

In addition to the Trajan’s Market, New Light on Rome 2000 was exhibited at another four ancient monuments and historic buildings: Museo delle Mura di Porta San Sebastiano, Cappella Palatina della Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi, Criptoportico Neroniano del Foro Romano e Palatino.

SOS — Secrets of the Sun and New Light on Rome 2000 enhanced even more the already spectacular ancient

architecture, by

transforming monuments, churches and historic buildings into magical rainbow chambers. Flat prisms, such as those installed by Erskine at the Trajan’s Markets,

captured the Sun’s light at openings just as windowpanes of 2000 years ago might have. In addition they were conveying to people the message that active or passive solar systems can change profoundly the artistic solar spectrum, however without any harm. In the same way solar technologies can change the natural and built environments where we live and work with benefit to them, to our health, and to the quality of life. Rome’s car emissions, on the contrary, are not visible but they cause more damage to the monuments than the solar radiation.