Dynamic Performance of Nature

209, East 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT, United States

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Dynamic Performance of Nature

209, East 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Type

Cultural › Museum

YEAR

2011

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

$100K - 500K

DPoN, our permanent architectural installation, augments environmental perception in museum visitors by communicating global environmental information through a dynamic and interactive interface, facilitated by social media, and embedded in the material of a high-tech parametric assembly. It’s conceived upon the notion that sustainability for the 21st century should be crafted to evolve beyond conventional application of green techniques and biomimetic pastiche into something alive and integrated with the environment spanning the virtual and physical divide.With DPoN we’ve injected static materials with live information to create a flowing picture of the world. Environmental sensors capture data from sources throughout the planet and feed that data to solar-powered LEDs embedded in the sine-wave form made of recycled plastic. As the sensors register changes in temperature, wind, seismicity, and other factors, the LEDs reflect these fluctuations with continuous spectral waves that represent minute shifts in the data feed from moment to moment. At 92 feet long and over 14 feet high, DPoN covers 1300 sqft of vertical exhibition space traversing the museum’s ground floor lobby, acting as a programmatic threshold between exhibit spaces. It’s composed of 176 unique, digitally fabricated, recycled HDPE fins embedded with 1,888 full-color RGB LED’s, all entirely managed by a comprehensive parametric model in Grasshopper 3D. Visitors interact with DPoN using Twitter to send messages to @LeoArtwall, the wall’s unique Twitter handle, that either update the global weather feed from thousands of sites around the world or paint a wash of colors that dance and chase across the wall. DPoN invites curious inquisition as well as detached contemplation of the synthesis between light, material, space, and information in hopes that visitors can perceive an architecture that is not inert, but communicates in its own language indelibly linked to material, geometry, and form. Completed October 2011