Creators: | WESTERMAN, Julie and QUINN, Lulu |
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Abstract: | Critical Mass is an animated light and vapor sculpture, produced based in collaboration with Lulu Quinn and installed June 2004. In this commission, Westerman has developed and realized a novel approach to socially sited art. The aim of this commission was to produce a ‘smart’ public sculpture that measures and reflects the internal workings and activities of the Millennium Building, Wolverhampton University. In keeping with many city centre campuses, this is a high profile, high-use building often deemed unfriendly or impenetrable to the local population. Critical Mass demonstrates a novel use of integrated electronic and mechanical systems to represent and communicate the activity inside the building to the city as a whole. It achieves this in a manner that is integral to the architecture of the building while creating an aesthetically engaging and accessible icon for the University and the city. The work is a dynamic sensing device designed to respond to the intensity of social activity of various sorts that take place within and adjacent to the building. The pipes act as a pressure gauge for the environment, registering the ‘temperature’ of social interaction, academic debate, and other changes. Each pipe is internally illuminated and animated by LED lights; jets of steam are released into the atmosphere, providing a graphic representation of the 'pressure points' inside and around the University. |
Item Type: | Artefact |
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: | Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute > Art and Design Research Centre |
Date: | 2004 |
Related URLs: | |
ID Code: | 4462 |
Deposited By: | Ann Betterton |
Deposited On: | 24 Jan 2012 16:51 |
Last Modified: | 18 Mar 2021 20:30 |
Critical mass: public artwork
Tools
WESTERMAN, Julie and QUINN, Lulu
(2004).
Critical mass: public artwork.
[Artefact]
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