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Terrain Vague

A permanent land art installation for the city of Denver with Jenna Didier that incorporates fog and compressed air to play with one’s perception of space and emphasize the sky and its ever-varying qualities of light. The piece is a large bowl of land about thirty feet in diameter and six feet deep. The sides of the basin have been built up using the excavated soil and are planted with native grasses. When a visitor enters the basin, fog begins to emerge from flush-mounted stainless steel canisters in the floor of the basin. If the air is still, the fog will become more and more dense, filling the cavity of the earth bowl up to its rim. The average visitor will be enveloped in the fog, unable to see anything around them except the sky. An air cannon also flush-mounted in the basin floor will detonate a few moments after the basin is completely

full of fog, sending a jellyfish-like plume of fog into the air above the earth basin. At night, this fog basin will be suffused with the light of LEDs that are also mounted in the flush-mounted canisters and controlled by timers. This system is designed to run off filtered city water. Unlike traditional interactive water features, this is a very low water consumer, it requires little maintenance, and since it only operates when someone is there to enjoy it, it saves electricity. When seen from a distance, it is a striking feature on the landscape.