96 Variations on a Phylogenetic Tree is an art installation in the Bessey Hall atrium. It developed through a collaborative process with University Scientists. Together, we studied how we might fill the atrium with a representation of the Phylogenetic Tree, also known as the Tree of Life.
In biology, The Tree of Life shows evolutionary relationships among all organisms. It is a diagram that branches upward from “a common ancestral life-form”, or the origin of all species. The branches, known as “taxa” to biologists, are groups of closely related species. Three “domains” (Bacteria, Archaea, and Eucaryota) encompass the taxa.
We made our tree in stainless steel ball chain. Thousands of individual chains interconnect like a web, and are suspended within the atrium. The chains, each hanging from two points, represent the branches. Three contrasting colors indicate the three domains. Near the bottom of the installation, a single vertical chain represents the common ancestor.
Ball chain is very thin, a few strands would look insubstantial within the four story atrium. To give the tree a stronger visual presence, we made 96 variations using five and a half miles of chain. Each variation is slightly different in scale and composition than the others. Multiple iterations of the tree give the installation depth within the narrow atrium but they also function conceptually as an acknowledgement that scientific model is a snapshot of contemporary understanding. Scientific knowledge is continually evolving by reevaluating existing models while developing new ones. Science itself, is iterative.
20093 segments of chain, each unique in length and location, comprised the installation. To accommodate so much intricacy, we worked with a computer controlled machine to cut the ball-chain into unique segments then link the segments in a precise order to make the individual chains. The chains interconnect and when under the effects of gravity while hung in the atrium, form the Tree.
The resulting artwork is a dynamic system in equilibrium: the weight of an individual chain influences the shape of the entire tree while the shape of the entire tree, in turn, impacts the shape of the individual chain. As an artwork, it is a visual metaphor for the delicate balance among all living things. It will invite us to better appreciate the inter-relatedness of humans with the Tree of Life, identify our role in the environment, and help us to see our responsibility for the well-being of the planet.2017
2017
Welcome Terrace East & West
This project is part of The Commons at Headlands Center of the Arts. The public opening is Sunday, September 17, 2017. Once neatly paved and flat, the paved driveways in front of the Barracks buildings have decayed to a state of semi-function. We propose drawing out their inherent beauty by repairing them and bringing them up to contemporary standards of accessibility. Our aim is to illuminate repair as a moment in the history of the walkways and decay as part of the history of Fort Barry.We based our approach on Kintsugi – the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. From the Japanese the term roughly translates to mean golden joinery or golden repair. At Headlands, we will treat the driveways as part of the history of the Fort Barry.We will work in the manner of archaeologists by documenting each pathway, collecting and organizing the fractured and misaligned fragments of concrete, meticulously reassembling them to form a flat surface, then shaping and filling the cracks between them with a colored terrazzo mortar.2017
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Created for the Exhibition Almost Anything Goes: Architecture and Inclusivity at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara
On view: January 5 – March 16, 2014
Wall Text:
The boundaries between cultural disciplines are not easy to cross. A guy who studies sculpture and goes on to create furniture will probably never see his work in the MoMA design collection. An architect who refers to her installations as “art” will undoubtedly provoke derision from the ranks within the fine arts academy.In determining a title for this installation, one reason Radiant came to mind is because the figures illuminate the space within which they are situated. Body seemed appropriate because we explored the human figure; and Glob because we developed a process for producing the work in paper pulp – formless oatmeal-like goo commonly used to make protective packaging for consumer products.Each of the three figures in the Radiant Body Globs installation—Figure Head, Come to Mama, and Grandpa Lost his Cane—can be displayed as part of the installation or individually as a sculpture or lamp. Principals in Charge: Gaston Nogues, Benjamin BallProject Manager: Mora NabiProject Team: Mora Nabi, Christine Forster-Jones, Aaron Goldman2013
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Built to Wear, constructed for the 2009 Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism was on view from December 5ththrough January 23 2010 in the underground exhibition space at the Shenzhen Civic Square. Invoking the theme of the exhibition - City Mobilization– the construction of the installation activated collaboration between Ball Nogues Studio, American Apparel, the Biennale organizers and a group of 30 volunteers from Shenzhen. This hanging architecturally scaled structure is comprised of 10,000 items of clothing manufactured by American Apparel – operator of the largest garment factory in the United States. Each garment serves the dual role of building component and individual article of clothing. Over the course of the Biennale, the installation will be dismantled and the T-shirts, muscles shirts, spaghetti tank tops, baby dresses, bikinis and g-strings comprising it will be dispersed to visitors. At a time when most US garment production has moved offshore, Built to Wear invites viewers to contemplate the relocation of manufacturing from the developed world to emerging economic powers like China while reconsidering notions of material lifecycle in architecturally scaled structures. By using a coveted consumer good – the garment - as its basic building block the project expands and critiques notions of “green’ architecture while activating public space through consumption.
As a visual concept, the installation served as a symbolic gesture of sustainability and a poetic reminder that the buildings in our cities are impermanent: frozen moments in the flow of products through the tributaries of global exchange. Outside of its environmental commentary, the project dramatically recontextualizes the clothing item – a symbol of mass consumerism - into an alternative gesture of hope.
Principals in Charge: Gaston Nogues, Benjamin BallProject Coordinators: Qi Yue Yue, Brianna Gorton, Ken TanProject Team Los Angeles: Norma Silva, Patrick LaTona, Jonathan Kitchens, Ayodh Kamath, Rochelle GomezProject Team Shenzhen: Li Huan, Chen Xin, Wang Guo Xian, Wang Yi Le, Wang Dan Chun, Li Ying Xin, Huang Zhu Yan, Lai Ruo Yin, Luo Jia Ye, Ke Ya Wen, Wang Hai Xuan, Liang Ting Ting, Lin Ting, Chen Su Hui, Zhang Zhi Peng, Yang Gao Bin, Xu Xiao Guang, Zheng Jia Wei, Pan Shan Shan, Rong Na Na, Liu Xi, Liu Jia Qiong, Zhuang Jie Rui, Lin Chao, Xu Yi Jing, Zeng Xiao Mi, Daniel Fernándezpascual, José Esparza,Custom Software: Sparce StudioCurator: Beatrice Galilee2009
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Unseen Current is a navigable billow of fog flowing through Extension Gallery. Three thousand hanging strings or "catenaries" totaling 10 miles in length span between the walls of the gallery in precise arrangements. From a distance, this three dimensional array of catenaries suggests a surface or volume; upon moving to its center, it evokes a rolling fog. To this end, custom software was developed to explore the form of (and generate the plans for) the project. Like a pointillist painting in space inspired by the smoggy sky of Los Angeles, the color of the installation gradates from a rich orange to sky blue.
Architect Philip Johnson's ethereal hanging-chain window treatments at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York also served as inspiration for the project. Ball-Nogues "sample" what was essentially a two dimensional decorative motif for Johnson then reinterpret it for their three dimensional modulations in the gallery.
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Project Team Los Angeles: Ben Dean, Mark Bowman, Michael Ferrante
Project Team Chicago: Christopher Bartek, Lindsay Grote, Jack Donoghue, Kasia Mielniczuk, Pei San Ng, Marine Manigault, Martina Dolejs, Cady Chintis, John Wolters, Ryan Johnson, Dana Andersen, Melodi, Zarakol, Sarah Forbes, Bryant Pitak, Kathryn McRay, Christina Halatsis, Vince Rivera, Kate Cain, Mariga Medic
Software Development: Sparce Studio
Curator: Paula Palombo
Unseen Current is sponsored by Extension Gallery, The Graham Foundation, with the designer’s support provided by United States Artists.
2008
2008
Commissioned for the 2008 Coachella Valley Music Festival in California, Copper Droopscape floated over the expansive festival grounds for ten days, providing both visual spectacle and shelter from the harsh desert sun. Throughout the day, music fans sat, talked, and slept in the dappled pools of colored light and shadow produced by the canopy. At night, Copper Droopscape was lit from underneath–– a shimmering, fiery beacon drawing lovers and dancers from across the 90-acre concert grounds.
Unlike conventional fabric structures designed to resist the force of wind, Copper Droopscape actively engaged the breeze. The complex, 90-foot canopy translated wind energy into sensuous motions that festival goers compared to the sea, or a kelp forest undulating beneath the waves–– both delicious metaphors for a cool sanctuary, given the installation’s unforgiving desert site. The motion of the translucent canopy resulted in a hypnotic effect as light passed through and reflected off the Mylar network. In a light breeze, the canopy made a gentle rustling sound; during gusts, a pronounced clapping sound.
The canopy was supported by rapidly deployable tripods made of untreated California pine. After the festival, the tripods were repurposed by a local builder.
Copper Droopscape was a study in non-standard modularity. While it employed a uniform cell dimension, each of its 864 parts was unique. The standard cell made field assembly manageable, while each part’s non-uniform aspects–– the form and proportions of the hanging tendril–– yielded a rich visual and aural experience.
Ball-Nogues collaborated with Pylon Technical to create custom software to explore the form of Copper Droopscape, control the degree of openness in the canopy, and expedite fabrication. The software made formal exploration and revision fluid and effortless. Rather than drawing each of the unique mylar parts, Ball-Nogues sketched the qualities of the canopy in general terms, and the software automatically generated the hundreds of components making up the unified canopy system, labeled them, and prepared files to drive a computer-controlled cutting machine. The design and logistics were “front loaded” to reduce on-site management and fabrication complexity, which allowed Copper Droopscape to be assembled by a team of 12 people in just ten days.
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Project Manager: Andrew Lyon
Project Design and Development Team: Ben Dean, Andrew Lyon
Project Construction Team: Benjamin Ball, Chris Ball, Jodie Bass, Mark Bowman, Ryan Davis, Ben Dean, Martina Dolejs, Melissa Sophia Drocles, Christine Eyer, Richie Garcia, Eddie Gonzales, Oliver Hess, Josh Levine, Andrew Lyon, Reid Maxwell, Pie San Ng, Gaston Nogues, Charon Nogues, Nick Paradowski, Michelle Paul, Sarah Peyton, Geoff Sedillo, Andy Summers, Elizabeth Tremante, William Trossell, Erica Urech, Johanna Zuckerman
Software Development: Sparce Studios
Structural Consultants: Buro Happold, Los Angeles
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From the Museum of Modern Art Press Release:
The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center present an installation in P.S.1's outdoor courtyard by Los Angeles-based firm Ball-Nogues, led by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, winner of the eighth annual MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. The competition invites emerging architects to propose an installation for the courtyard of P.S.1 in Long Island City, Queens. The objective of the Young Architects Program is to identify and provide an outlet for emerging young talent in architecture, an ongoing mission of both MoMA and P.S.1. This year, five finalists selected by a closed nomination process were asked to present designs for an installation at P.S.1.
The winning installation, Liquid Sky, designed by Ball-Nogues (Los Angeles), will be on view in the P.S.1 courtyard beginning June 21. Liquid Sky will immerse the viewer in kaleidoscopic patterns of color created by sunlight filtering through an array of translucent, tinted Mylar petals that resemble blossoming flowers of stained glass. Together, the petals form a tensioned surface that reconfigures the horizon, cresting above the walls of the P.S.1 courtyard. Six towers constructed from untreated utility poles support the surface while providing discrete spaces at their base for relaxing on enormous community hammocks made of brightly colored netting. For the adjacent outdoor gallery, the team has designed the Droopscape, a slack catenary belly that shifts and flows in the wind, supported by drench towers that periodically soak visitors below with their gravity-induced tip buckets by Fountainhead. The winning proposal was designed in collaboration with Paul Endres of Endres Ware Architects/Engineers and the Product Architecture Lab at Stevens Institute. As in past years, the project will serve as the venue for Warm Up, the popular music series held annually in P.S.1's courtyard.
"Ball-Nogues's exuberant project, Liquid Sky, combines the zest of a joyful event space with rigorous research into new materials and digital fabrication," states Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art. Low-tech assembly is joined with experiment in the latest cutting and fabrication techniques gleaned from the sailing industry. They posit a project whose research will hold resonance and application long after this summer's Warm Up series. Liquid Sky is a rich palette of atmospheric effects and brilliant color with an undertone of the ephemeral circus spectacle.
According to P.S.1 Director Alanna Heiss, "To hear five great, young architects present their dream of a temporary pavilion is to fall in love five times. The winner, Ball-Nogues, from the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, gave us a Fellini-esque project: a circus tent whose canvas has been replaced with phosphorescent scales of hallucinogenic colors. This astonishing but low-tech creation cannot fail but to delight viewers of all ages."
Ball-Nogues principals, Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues, describe the experience of their installation: "When you step into Liquid Sky, you've set your mind and body free from the weight of the urban environment and are submerged into an atmosphere of soothing exhilaration, subtle stimulation, and inspirational calm. As the installation changes from day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, your expectations create your own unique experience."
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Project Team: Paul Endres, Mark Pollock, Erik Verboon, Corey Brugger
Canopy Membrane Analysis and Formfinding, Structural Engineering: Endres Ware: Paul Endres, Benjamin Corotis, Mary Barensfeld
Parametric Modeling and Scripting: Product Architecture Laboratory, Stevens Institute of Technology: John Nastasi, Mark Pollock, Erik Verboon, Corey Brugger
Canopy Membrane and Structural Consultants: Arup Los Angeles: Bruce Danziger; Arup New York: Matt Jackson, Matt Clark; Werner Sobek New York: Will Laufs
Water Effects Design and Engineering: Fountainhead Water Systems Design, Los Angeles: Jenna Didier, Oliver Hess, Nick Blake
Hammocks: Sheila Pepe
Project Coordinators:: Chris Reins and Elizabeth Lande
Poster Series Curator: Israel Kandarian
Construction Coordination:Ball-Nogues Studio
Construction Team Leaders: Mark Pollack , Justin Capuco, Jed Geiman, Scott Mitchell
Construction Team: Danny Abalof, Andrea Abramoff, Rocio Barcia, Bogyi Banovich, Bridget Basham, Tripp Bassett, Harrison Blair, Lorka Birn, Lander Burton, Maria Camoratta, Steven Chen, Dianne Chia, Malachi Connely, Ceasar Cotta, Jonathan Cottle, Elizabeth Cunningham, Dino, Susannah Dickinson, Erin Egenberger, Kate Feather, Michael Ferrante, Bruce Foster, Hiroe Fujimoto, Owen Gerst, Lee Gillentine, Adrian Grenier, Yarden Harari, Mark Horne, Steve Keene, Keivon Kianfar, Greg Kay, Da Sul Kim, Nicole Kotsis, Michael Lindsey, Margot List, Catherine Lohanata, Sabrina Lupero, Andrew Lyon, Brittany Macomber, Mia Lai, Miles Mercer, Paul Matys, Cristina Milleur, Scott Mitchell, Ry Morrison, Charon Nogues, Caroline O’Leary, Meaghan Pierce-Delaney, Alex Pollock, Raphael Periera, Cindy Poulton, Ardo Pizzi, Jar Rittoral, Todd Rouhe, Larissa Santoro, Karl Schmid, Benno Schmidt, Jess Shirley, Jesse Seegers, Skyler, Rico Suarez, David Wicks, CK Dickson Wong, Tom Wu, Coe Will, and other generous contributors
Special Thanks: Brooke Hodge, Sylvia Lavin, Tripp Bassett, Monica Jeremias, Charon Nogues, Nancy Ball, William Ball, Mario Nogues, Tony Barre, Josh Levine, Meaghan Lloyd, Socrates Sculpture Park, Mark di Suvero, David Jargowski, Hood Sailmakers, Hale Walcoff, John Gluek, Tom Obed, Benjamin Keating, John Drezner, Gary Hummel, Eliott Pattison Sailmakers, Britt Holmes, Tom Majich, Jason Moses, Texas A&M University: Carol Lafayette, International Rigging - Simon Franklyn, Elizabeth Cunningham, John Nastasi, David Bott, Tom Wiscombe, Hardy Wronsky, Southern California Institute of Architecture, Pablo Castro and Jennifer Lee, Susan Hengst, Tracey Tanner, Tasha Lemel, Deagan Day Design, Jamaica Jones, Michael Lindsey Sculpture, Scott Walker
2007
Clothing retailer Agnes b. asked us to design a low budget store window installation that made a connection to our project for the Young Architect's Program at the P.S.1 Contemporary Arts Center. We used a flexible scissoring net structure similar to the "Droopscape" structure at P.S.1, but here in a vertical configuration so that the net formed a large-scale chain link fence between Greene Street in Soho and the interior of the store. To make the 390 unique parts, we employed polyester reinforced Mylar cut with a computer controlled system. The cutting system labeled the material with a Sharpie marker to make the "Agnes b." logo and write "P.S.1 Warm Up" on the parts. Posters by various designers from throughout the world appeared in collages in the store. Mimicking the poster concept for the P.S.1 installation, each week a new poster appeared to compliment or obscure the previous week's edition. Israel Kandarian was curator for the posters series.
Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues Project Fabrication: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues Graphic Design and Poster Curator: Israel Kandarian
2006
In summer 2006 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles commissioned us to create a one-night installation for the Skin and Bones, Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture opening night fete and annual fundraiser. The event took place in a 12,000 square foot gallery building at the Geffen Contemporary. The development and fabrication time for the project was six weeks.
In literal reference to fashion we used garment related fabrication techniques such as patterning, sewing, folding, weaving, knitting & draping to create an ephemeral structure that would enhance the social setting and create a shared visual memory of the fleeting gala. En-route to dinner, guests were invited to walk a runway through a swirling kaleidoscopic array of last year's T-shirts, flannel pajamas, Polo shirts and all other manner of accouterment.
To create this effect we worked in concert with Endres Ware Engineers to develop an anticlastic minimal surface net structure that became the armature for weaving colorful materials plucked from the conveyor belts of bulk textile recycling companies. We laid the materials flat for flame proofing treatment, sorted them into color categories and then folded them in preparation for weaving. This process served as karmic retribution for years of neglecting to properly do laundry. Working closely with a fishing net manufacturer, we educated ourselves in the deceptively vast intricacies of net building; applying the know-how of an "outsider" industry to create an architectonic structure. Afterward, our net maker told us "it was the most challenging net I have ever made."Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues Fabrication: Ball-Nogues Studio Fabrication Team: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues, Ben Dean, Elizabeth Tremante, Charon Nogues, Monica Jeremias Structural Engineer: Endres Ware Architects and Engineers Net Fabrication: Christensen Networks
2006
2006
Rice Gallery commissioned this installation in collaboration with The Museum Fine Arts in Houston exhibition, The Modern West: American Landscape, 1890-1950. When the Gallery director mentioned a Modern West tie-in before we had settled on an approach to the project we realized that the notion of landscape and geological phenomena dovetailed with our design for Tiffany and Company’s Frank Gehry Jewelry Launch Gala on Rodeo Drive in 2006. In the Tiffany project, the jewelry maker’s “body as landscape” ad campaign informed our approach to creating laminated cardboard walls and ottomans. At Rice, we expanded the potential of constructing landscapes in cardboard to include the viewer’s physical participation. We invited visitor exploration by extending the casual social terrain of the campus into the gallery, transforming it into a traversable rolling playground. On any given day one might discover a group of gallery goers studying, snoozing, climbing, sliding down the rolling terrain, or making-out in one of the darkened recesses below the cardboard surface.
Rip Curl Canyon was a kind of mythical location in the American West where land and water collide, far from Houston’s flat drained swamps. From its highest point at the rear of the gallery, its steep, crevice-like formations sloped down and gained momentum before breaking apart to form ribbons of curling waves. Like rip currents – narrow, fast moving belts of water – the segments twisted and surged toward the front glass entry wall. The view through the glass provided only glimpses of the unfolding topography beyond and invited the visitor to probe deeper. The steady climbing exploring caused the raw cut cardboard to slowly compress with each footstep…over time this accumulation developed into subtle pathways.
The fabrication processes used to make the natural brown surfaces are in the lineage of those Gehry employed in his legendary "Easy Edges" line of furniture in the 1970's. Expanding on this knowledge enabled us to create architecturally scaled cardboard structures and introduce double curvature. We used the properties and limitations of the material – determined through building full scaled mock-ups during development combined with a parametric digital interface - to shape the cardboard – ribbons.” The project required laminating over 20,000 strips (weighing approximately eight tons) of curved, industrially die-cut corrugated cardboard in twelve days. Incredibly strong and capable of supporting the weight of several people, the cardboard laminates operate as semi-monocoques with an intermediary plywood armature. The armature was made of standard wood materials – 2 x 4s and plywood – individually cut and CNC routered offsite to conform to the varying dimensions and curvature of the undulating cardboard shells. We digitally developed a language of slotting connections so that these non-standard parts came together like a giant puzzle in four days, required very little structural decision making in the field and gave us the freedom to make improvised choices when installing the cardboard.
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Parametric Modeling: Benjamin Ball
Structural Consultants: Arup Los Angeles: Bruce Danziger
Curator: Kimberly Davenport
2006
In the fall of 2005 Tiffany & Company hired Ball-Nogues to create the environment for the gala event celebrating the launch of its line of jewelry and accessories designed by architect Frank Gehry. The happening took place on a closed portion of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. It featured temporary constructions that filled the street, honored the materiality of Gehry's early work, and reinforced the imagery of Tiffany's new "body as landscape" advertising campaign.
Ball-Nogues devised walls, furniture, and bars for the event. One wall structure, half a block long to form an elegant backdrop, curved like the human body and was constructed from 4000 layers of corrugated cardboard sandwiched together. "Peep show" type display windows, inspired by Marcel Duchamp's Étant Donnés, punctuated the wall, framing tightly cropped compositions of live, naked models wearing the Gehry designed jewelry. In addition to creating walls, twenty-four voluptuous ottomans, no two alike, invited the 600 guests to explore playful new ways of sitting.The assembly processes used to make the natural brown surfaces elaborate on those Gehry employed in his legendary "Easy Edges" line of furniture in the 1970's. These sensuous forms that resembled slices of rolling topography grew from a manufacturing process created by Ball-Nogues. The entire project required laminating over 25,000 strips of curved, industrially cut corrugated cardboard. Incredibly strong and capable of supporting the weight of several people, the cardboard laminates operate more like shells (integrating structure and skin) rather than surfaces - which need the support of a skeletal armature. The pieces reorient the viewer's notions of common cardboard from a raw packaging material to a substance with structural potential at an architectural scale, capable of being used to fashion elegantly refined compound curving forms.Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Project Team: Sam Gehry, Jonathan Ward
Fabricator: Ethos Design
2005
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Construction Coordination: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Construction Team: the magnificent volunteers at Materials & Applications
Membrane Analysis: Dieter Strobel
Structural Engineering Consultants: David Bott, Hardy Wronske
Sound: James Lumb
Parametric Modeling: Benjamin Ball
Photography: Benny Chan, Oliver Hess, Scott Mayoral, Joshua White
Curator: Jenna Didier
Special Thanks: Dewey Ambrosio, Miranda Banks, Freya Bardell, David Bott, Siobhan Burke, Scott Carter (the prince of parametric modeling), Malachi Conolly, Ben Dean, Jenna Didier, Stephanie Elliot, Rachel Francisco, Rob Fitzgerald, Linda Graveline, Andrew Hardaway, Oliver Hess, Tony Hudgins, Leigh Jerard, Tim Levin, Jonny Lieberman, Brandie Lockett, Kellie Lumb, Alexandra Isaievych, Alex MikoLevine, Fred Moralis, Jim Miller, Phil Miller, Charon Nogues, pAdlAb: Dan Gottlieb & Penny Herscovitch, Harry Pattison, Joanne Pink-Tool, Jeremy Rothe-Kushel, Edward Shelton, Dieter Strolbel, Joe Sturges, Elizabeth Tremante, Hardy Wronskie, and Bryant Yeh.
2013
Overview
In nearly every culture, the table is a symbol of connection between people. Tables make places where people come together. By providing a space for eating, writing, negotiating, or playing games, tables give us a platform to interact with one another.We propose a table for the Greenway that might someday be remembered as the “Big Table.” Big because it meanders throughout the entire length of the Greenway – about 1.5 miles – probably making it the longest table in the world were it to be connected at street crossings during a special event. At approximately 8000 feet in length it could seat 7500 people at once. Comprised of more than 1200-painted picnic tables conjoined into one solitary gesture, it will unite the Greenway’s segmented parks and surrounding communities giving both symbolic and functional meaning to the notion of connection while making an unprecedented spectacle.The Table turns corners and switches back on itself, responding to the physical features within each of the individual parks through which it passes while creating new spaces within its folds that can be used for a limitless number of activities.What was once a slash dividing the City is now a suture; a healing connections between communities that unites a necklace of disconnected green spaces and gives meaning to a space upon which most of the buildings have turned their backs.Activate
The Table promises to activate the spaces around it. Formed within its meanders and turns, the Table provides opportunities for creating outdoor rooms and seating for all sorts of urban activities some of which already happen regularly on the Greenway while others will be completely new. From Yoga classes to outdoor concerts, arts and crafts fairs to food truck festivals, public movie theaters to urban lounges, the table will generate opportunities for local organizations to make functional spaces for their public events. This process is reliant upon strategic partnership with local Boston community programs and groups. For example, if Boston ping-pong club wants an arena for their weekly league matches, they can work with Ball-Nogues and the Conservancy to design such a space within one of the meanders of the Table.A Ribbon of Color
The Table will be a spectacle of color weaving through the City. From the buildings above the Greenway it will be appear as a continuous spectral gradation, undulating and shifting -when in fact it is composed of a limited palette taken from a paint chip fan book of a major national paint brand. To achieve this effect, we will use employ the technique of dithering, which according to Wikipedia, dithering is a technique used in computer graphics to create the illusion of color depth in images with a limited color palette (color quantization). In a dithered image, colors not available in the palette are approximated by a diffusion of colored pixels from within the available palette.Color serves two purposes for the Table, not only to create an engaging ever-changing composition suggestive of Op Art or the work of Carlos Cruz Diez, but also to differentiate zones by way of color rather than function. Visitors may indentify different areas of the Greenway by the color of the Table in that vicinity - “meet me at the purple section of the Table in Dewy Square Park.”Adapt
Rather than propose proscribing a specific form, we think of the Table is as an adaptable and scalable system for functioning as a kit-of-parts, re-making spaces within the City. As the design process proceeds, the shape, and size and deployment of the Table can adapt to changing financial conditions and outreach opportunities without sacrificing its power and meaning. The same is true of the table post-installation, it can be reconfigured and reorganized to accommodate these changing needs of the people that use it.Reuse
After the Table has run its course, joining, activating and enriching the Greenway, it will be dismantled to its constituent, smaller scaled tables that can be distributed to homes, schools, businesses, or even other parks.Moving beyond recycling, which down-cycles material into a less valuable state, reusing tables means less waste than typically produced by a temporary art projects but perhaps, more importantly, it means that the piece will live on for years to come, reminding us of the connective potential of the Greenway. This reminder shall remain a powerful symbol long after the Table ceases to occupy the Greenway.2010
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