Two sculptures in downtown LA, in construction now!

Follow construction progress on Aperiodic Industries page.

Los Angeles, CA   Pedestrians traversing the 101 on their way to or from Union Station or the El Pueblo Historical Monument and world famous Olvera Street from the historic core of downtown and civic center will soon have new experiences waiting for them in the form of two new public art installations currently nearing completion. Conceived by a team comprised of Jenna Didier, Oliver Hess, Ned Kahn and Marcos Lutyens, these sculptures were commissioned by the Department of Transportation with the guidance of the Department of Cultural Affairs as the second phase to a pedestrian improvement project for the two bridges that span the 101 Freeway on Los Angeles Street and Main Street – the first phase widened the sidewalks.

The artists’ vision sprang from a desire to use the vernacular of the freeway, in other words, the aesthetic of CalTrans, but warp this into something beautiful and engaging to the general public – the infrastructures we build are a reflection of our culture and they send a message to the future. As Hess completed the final renders, giving shape to some initial ideas, the concepts’ forms emerged. The Los Angeles Street canopy was presented as a sweeping gestural archway that draws upon iconic elements like a large wave closing out on the shore and flocking patterns of birds. The 100’ long expanse provides an experience of the pergola at the scale of these natural phenomena. In order to create a continuous expanse, Hess drew upon a technique he had developed for a previous installation that incorporates a node and grid system. The LED lights embedded in the formed aluminum “nodes” that cover the grid of stainless steel netting will illuminate each night and will display a subtle yet telling story of the vibration of the bridge via the use of a geophone similar to those geologists use to measure earthquakes.

As a counterpoint to the technology dependent vibration measurement of Los Angeles Street Pergola, the one on Main Street uses passive mechanics to visualize seismic activity. The entire upper section of the sculpture is a series of pendula which can swing freely for a few degrees but are carefully controlled beyond that to provide a safe illustration of the bridge’s movement. Measurement devices are embedded into the structure and allow for various insights, including the presence of “love waves”, a rare seismic phenomena where the liquefaction of earth allows a perpendicular wave to propagate over the surface of the earth, in this case these are measured traveling from the east to the west and back.

Beginning in 2008, Didier and Hess developed the concept and continued through the design process until its final review and acceptance by both the LA Department of Cultural Affairs and community stakeholders. They then worked closely with an engineering team that included Matt Melnyk of Nous Engineering, Dan Weddell of WKE, Buro Happold, the LA Public Works Engineering Bureau with Jim Treadaway as City Program Manager and Tim Fu as Construction Manager, (followed previously by Arrash Agahi, and Ing Jones), CalTrans and numerous specialized engineering firms.  The artworks were constructed by ACON Construction with several specialized sub contractors including CadWorks and Fabritech.

As construction began, Hess continued to consult and guide the process from prototyping through the installation from his studio in Glassell Park, Aperiodic Industries. There he hosted a series of public workshops and intensive studies of the subtler aspects of the pergolas’ design and engineering to attain that extra level of detail that the artworks required in order to make them truly inviting and memorable.

Although designed as pedestrian enhancements, the pieces are visible from the 101 freeway from both north and southbound lanes and will function for millions as “The Gateway to Los Angeles” whether they arrive via freeway, rail, bicycle or on foot.

This permanent artwork conceptualized with I was part of the design partnership of Didier Hess is for the Wilmington Waterfront Development as part of their Buffer Park project.  This piece will illuminate the pedestrian bridges that run along the buffer zone. The concept for this project was propelled by our interest to bring the ocean nearer to Wilmington; envelop visitors to the park with the sensation of being in or on the water. Therefore the scale and motion of the lighting encourages a more intimate engaging experience. It is also meant to imitate the rare effect seen in the ocean at night when phosphorescent plankton illuminate the waves. By activating hidden sensors located along the bridge, pedestrians and cyclists will trigger waves of LED lights in response to their speed and direction of travel meant to mimic the waves of the ocean. When no visitors are on the bridges, the system shall be designed to fire off a wave every 5-15 minutes, or perhaps will synchronize to tidal information. The illuminated assemblies containing the rope of programmable LEDs concealed within multi-layered sculptural stainless steel diffuser also called a “wavelet” will be secured to rods attached directly to the base of the bridge and held in tension with cables, allowing them to be strong but also quiver and sway with the wind. The illuminated LED wavelets are at the scale of gentle surf. As one passes over a bridge, the experience is one of an enhanced effect on their environment. Their rippling forms will help intermediate the scales the surroundings; the massive proportions of industrial infrastructure surrounding the park and even the park itself will no longer overwhelm the human experience. Colors for our lighting scheme are sampled from the surroundings to create a reflection of the entire spectrum of the environment in all of its perceptual qualities, much like water reflects the twinkling lights of a harbor.

Artwork for the Vasquez Rocks visitor center in Agua Dulce California.

Constructed through a series of workshops, designed in collaboration with Jenna Didier and executed with the help of dozens of volunteers interested in the larger issues surrounding the project and community.  For this project, we were selected because of our interest in revealing the forces at work within the park that have made it a geological wonder. Tatavian rock hieroglyphics as well as other artifacts have been found at the site, as well as the extremely unique geology and its pop culture identity all fed into the shape and function of this artwork.  The materiality is what ties it all together though.  We wanted to experiment with rammed earth to test its practicality for desert construction and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to create a sort of laboratory to understand the performance of different cement and earth mixtures.   Hence each layer of rammed earth has a different formulation and the artwork is designed to erode, hence revealing its own performative characteristics.  At the same time this erosion reveals keep sakes placed in the earth by particpants who worked to create the project.  Hopefully to bring their own kin here years hence and explain the significance of the project to them, decades hence.  Creating a poetic multi-generational relationship to the site and its geology.

For Firestation 94 in the Baldwin Park area of Los Angeles 2011

Our work always tries to respond to a local need. Live Forever is designed to monitor fire danger levels in the vicinity of Fire Station 94 in Los Angeles. Because of changes to the fire warning system and its relative granularity with regard to differing wind conditions inside and outside the city the state financed fire warning system was found to be inaccurate within LA. But, we also wanted to create an image not just of the natural systems that make fires possible but also of those that in opposition thrive and live within the relatively arid region. On the nearby Baldwin Hills the Chalk Dudyla (sometimes called the Live Forever) is a unique and beautiful plant that clings to steep cliffs like a spikey flower. We have tried to capture this plant’s identity in the shape of our water jet cutting, in the patina that naturally seals and protects the sheet brass with a slowly aging organic pattern that was applied through a unique spin painting technique developed at our non-profit architectural research center Materials & Applications. With a budget of one hundred thousand dollars, our goal was to produce maximum coverage and impact on an exterior wall of the building and speak to the community about the role of the fire station in the community as a resource for prevention from harm. A networked system of origami-folded brass sconces clustered onto the facade of the fire station monitor ambient humidity and temperature, then convey the relative risk of fire each evening through an animated LED display that creates waves across the building, more importantly the lighting and the unique nature of the sculpture serves as a reminder of the life hidden and thriving within our industrial infrastructure, a latent ecosystem that survives outside our classical understanding of what is “living.” We envision this system eventually evolving for future applications to become a responsive architectural fabric that monitors air quality, provide habitat for native flora and fauna, and creates passive cooling for south and west-facing walls.

Food Pyramid for LACMA, Los Angeles CA 2010

Taking cues from its symbolic predecessor and the material and natural ecologies of Los Angeles, Food Pyramid is a vertical development of the Fish Taco Garden prototyped last summer at Materials & Application’s outdoor exhibition space. Utilizing repurposed and recycled materials that evoke our current industrialized food production and distribution systems, the structure is constructed of stacked Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) Totes. Typically, the totes are used for commercial transport of potable liquids. The artists transformed these to support a system where food production occurs in an ever-renewing cycle that uses the waste generated by one area of the Food Pyramid to feed the other parts. Due to the low rate of evaporation, the 2,100 gallon system is ideal for the low-rainfall climate of Southern California, and is maintained by a small weekly addition of fresh water. Aside from the 100-watt pump powered by solar panels provided by Nick Vida to cycle the water, the pyramid operates with minimal power input and no external aid from purifiers or filters. During its development at M&A, the prototype garden was supported by captured rainwater despite the enduring drought in California. The delicate ecology of the pond is maintained by a natural mechanical system comprised of native bog plants, vegetables, igneous rocks, and gravel. The waste from the tilapia nourishes the tomatoes, onions, lettuce and cilantro. It is hoped that this compact model of an operational, low-impact food garden will spark visitors’ curiosity and enliven their imaginations to re-evaluate the now-discredited “food pyramid” that was once taught in U.S Public Schools and influenced the way in which Americans bought and served food for themselves and their families.

Instant Herlev Institute, Denmark 2009

Ukendt Beach is an inclined roof tile deck that descends into a rainwater “ocean” in the front yard of a home in suburban Copenhagen. The fabricated synthetic beach uses the roof construction materials and technologies of Denmark. The result is an undulating surface of ceramic tiles gliding into a gently lapping “sea”. We created our sea by flooding the grounds outside of the residence at the instantHERLEV2 site with rainwater caught off the roof.

Pomona College, Commencement structure.  2008, 2009, 2010

Public interaction is a crucial component of our work and is exemplified in our project”Pomona String Theory”. The shade canopy, designed alongside architect Emily White, was constructued to shelter the Pomona College audience in Marston Quad for the mid-May commencement ceremony. The shade structure was woven on-site from trucker’s nylon strap webbing and rip stop parachute fabric. The weave followed a strategy developed from string figures – specifically a form called the “Clown’s Collar”- to create a customized net suspended over the quadrangle. From the net hung a cloud of gently undulating streamers in Pomona College colors that provided a unique and lively shade. Software was used to coordinate the weave with a solar incidence angle study that determined an optimum density pattern, allowing for shade where it was most needed, while keeping the system as light weight and wind permeable as possible. The canopy’s assembly was developed through algorithms of weaving and lace making. A prototype of the canopy was constructed at our non-profit architecture research facility, Materials & Applications, that we co-direct. At M&A, the development process of “String Theory” was opened up to include the participation of local enthusiasts. In the final week, the canopy was assembled on site with the help of faculty and students. The participation of students and faculty in assembling “String Theory” was a crucial component of this massive social sculpture.

Art Center College of Design Wind Tunnel Pasadena CA 2008

A site-specific installation which operates both as a complex light pattern that greets visitors and as an environment-sensing device.  Commissioned for the Art Center presentation of the exhibition “Open House,” designed  and produced by Ubersee.

During the day, the “swarm” of green ambiguous forms, both biomorphic and geometric, accentuates the South Campus’s main entry. At twilight, the swarm comes to life, telling visitors and passersby about the current air quality around the building. Electronic sensors perceive air contaminants – such as tobacco, benzene, carbon monoxide, even perfume – and separately inform the outside and inside swarms, which sets off signals. These signals are interpreted as changes to the natural rhythm that the network has established based on the number and distribution of nodes connected to the cable net. Flashing cells on the exterior facade indicate air quality inside the building. Conversely, pulsating effects in the interior entry inform visitors about the outside air quality. The flashing lights become indicators of the environment like dramatic clouds at sunset that forewarnings of storms at night.

HouseSwarming is an example of how architects and designers are using technology that mimics biological systems. These patterns look like those structures found in nature, such as the patterns made by schools of fish, flocks of birds, and swarms of locusts. Used in the home, this type of sensor-node technology could enable us to extend our nervous system into the environment and alter our sense of boundaries.

Art Center College of Design, South Campus, Pasadena, California, 2007

Conceptual Design and electronics Oliver Hess

Concept Development Jenna Didier

Fabrication Supervision Marcos Lutyens

Special thanks to the volunteer crew.

On a bamboo bridge above a pond, human and monster meet through a gestural interface.

This installation explores the challenges of synchronizing the aesthetics and intrinsic characteristics of natural materials into a built environment, mediated with the latest computer aided design tools and embedded control system technologies. The installation is designed to challenge visitors with its subtle interactivity that references our universal fears and the more specific threats endemic today, including heightened surveillance of the private sector, increased computational control of daily life, and the poisoning of our environment.

The entire system runs on 4 computers with the artificial life of all “monsters” being created within the systhesis of information from all sensory modalities. The basis of human machine interaction is infrared firewire cameras used primarily for assembly line part inspection. The input is filtered through a number of programs that all approach vision differently, becoming a testbed for various infranatural projects. The vision data is then shared and exploited by simple finite state machines which then queue reactions and anticipation within a larger boid simulation (an artificial life program, modeled on the flocking behaviour of birds) of a large aqueous volume. The simulation keeps track of the surface condition of the water based on the wakes of various “monster” interactions via the use of midi and 48 variable frequency pumps.

Three types of “monsters” inhabit the water garden. Their artificial intelligence derives stimulation from visitors’ fear of the unknown, of being alone, and of themselves. A surveillance network watches and analyses their motions, actions, and reactions around the water. infranatural has designed all the systems to be self-learning and modifying so the installation will grow within its simulated environment while the bamboo woven into the bridge dries and hardens and tropical aquatic plants begin to flourish in the chemical-free rain-catchment water. The entire environment evolves over the course of the exhibition -visitors are invited to come back regularly to see what has thrived and what has shriveled. A “chaordic” system has been created here that simultaneously strives towards chaos and order – a principle that is as basic as survival of the fittest and one that is inherent in the hybrid vigour of this ecosystem whose components’ adaptation is dependent not just on the basic resources of rain and sun but also upon the attention and interest of the visitor.

Materials & Applications, Silver Lake, California, 2006

Concept Design Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess

Water engineering Jenna Didier

Software and hardware design Oliver Hess

Bridge engineering and architecture Bruce Danziger of Arup and Workshop Levitas

This installation was built by the volunteers at Materials & Applications

The Redondo Steam Plant’s interior far wall was illuminated with the rippling reflective surface of a vertical expanse of simulated water. The ocean just several yards away was invited into the plant – to join with electricity in the form of light and dance with visitors. The caustic patterns of light on the far wall pulled the visitor from one end of the Turbine Platform to the other and upon their arrival, began to respond to their position and movement

Tesla’s Ghost is the personification of electric light. The visitor experiences the light as a presence upon the bare wall of the turbine room that intensifies as they approach the balcony and seems to follow them as they move through the space. If several people gather along the balcony, the entire wall becomes illuminated and agitated as more people trigger the lights in response to their presence.
This project was created by several high intensity lights and turbo fans at the base of the wall–tucked out of view–that shined upon an expanse of mylar supported and tilted towards the wall.

California 2005

A collaboration of Oliver Hess, Jenna Didier, and Jimu Okumura