Seismic

Friday, August 12, 2011

Blog post by Danielle Follett Chard, The Leonardo's marketing specialist.

Because The Leonardo is a fusion of science, tech, and art we needed installations that represented all of these areas. To do this, we commissioned eight artists and several artist/scientist teams to create art installations based on scientific principles. One of these artists is local Ben Wiemeyer, who has created an installation that mirrors the retrofitted seismic bracing in the building.


 The seismic bracing was installed during the building's renovation and acts as a stabilizer during earthquakes. As we covered in this post, the bracing is made up of enormous steel beams that move and flex with the shock waves to keep stress off the building's structure. These beams, because of their huge size, create a strong visual presence throughout the building. Ben decided to create an installation that would complement the bracing instead of compete with them.

The seismic beams. (Excuse the construction mess-- this was taken several months ago.)

Ben's installation, which started as an idea to mirror the form of the bracing with light, evolved to a three dimensional representation of the bracing using electroluminescent wire. The wire will be a  glowing shadow just behind and offset from the braces.


Nearly 1,000 feet of this wiring, commonly known as EL wire, will be used to create the installation. The wire is copper coated in phosphorous and covered with a translucent tinted sleeve. The wire is low voltage, doesn't create any heat, and lasts a really long time... and makes us all think of Tron, so it's good in my book! Be sure to look for more blog posts for sneak peeks of other installations and exhibits because we've got a lot of exciting things in the works we don't want you to miss out on!


Labels: art, construction, installation, Leo, museum

Posted by The Leonardo at 8/12/2011 03:48:00 PM 0 comments