Mirror Cloud is our response to the 2013 Request For Proposals issued by the Architectural League of New York and Socrates Sculpture Park. The RFPasked architects and designers to propose a critical evaluation of the term, “folly,” and to propose such a structure to be built in Socrates.Mirror Cloud
As the visitor approaches the folly, it appears to be a single
artifact. Its structure seems dense and impenetrable. It is understood as a
sculpture among a sea of other sculptures in the garden. Upon closer
inspection, one notices a path through the Mirror Cloud. It is open and can be
entered. At the center is a podium where the visitors become a part of the
cloud. They can have their picture taken in its midst. Instead of observing the
folly as a sculpture, they now inhabit it like an architecture. The pictures
complete the assimilation of the visitor into the folly. In the event of the
photo the viewer, the folly, and the landscape become one thing, fractured and
whirled into a swarm of shards.
After "finding" the center, the visitors can continue to
explore the Mirror Cloud. A meandering path folds through the network of
mirrored panels and woven strands. The shards of reflective material capture
the images of the embedded occupants and blur them into a singular cloud.
Mirror Cloud is composed of a dense network of polyester rope woven between
reclaimed utility poles and a central podium. Woven through this network of
lines is an array of acrylic mirror panels. The structure is simultaneously
highly controlled and completely ad-hoc. The base geometry is calibrated using
a parametric model to create the desired visitor experience, but the overall
affect is applied in the field.
