| art proposal | Downtown is a large-scale mechanical sculpture, evocative of
the rush of an afternoon crowd at a downtown pedestrian
crossing. Downtown will cycle between a red DON'T WALK symbol and a
multi-layer kinetic display of moving pedestrians bathed in white
light. Downtown will be suitable for daytime and nighttime operation.
Description of Installation
Downtown is built into an 8-foot black cube. The viewer looks through the
10' storefront window directly into the cube. A one-foot border of the
window is blacked out on all sides, freeing room in the workspace on every
side for mechanism (not visible to viewer).
Inside the black cube are a series of six semi-transparent theatrical scrims
(similar to cheesecloth material). On two of the six scrims, a hand similar to
the hand signal at a pedestrian crosswalk is stenciled in white on a black
background. On four of the six scrims, a few dozen figures of pedestrians
are stenciled in white on a black background.
The six scrims are layered front to back in the black cube. The scrims are
semi-transparent, allowing the viewer to see through multiple layers into the
rear of the cube.
The scrims are lit from above by a series of track lights. These lights are
automatically timed to cycle in intervals. Two sets of lights flood the layered
scrims of hands in red light for ten seconds. Then, four sets of lights
illuminate the layered scrims of stenciled pedestrians in white light for 20
seconds. The figures appear suspended in the three dimensional space.
During the period while the pedestrians are illuminated, the cloth is slowly
stretched and released by a series of hidden threads. The stretching and
shrinking of the scrim material causes the figures to appear like they are
moving.
The mechanics of Downtown are not visible to the viewer - two motors are
installed at the rear of the cube, and a series of threads and bobbins are
wound to control the stretching and shrinking of the cloth. |