What makes the city recognizable and authentic? Practically every metropolis has its own landmarks, emblematic objects, identification markers. For New York, for example, it is the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. For Chicago, there is a contemporary metal sculpture "Cloud Gate" by the British artist Anish Kapoor, polished to a mirror shine, installed right in the middle of the city square in Millennium Park, popularly nicknamed "bean", because it really looks like a giant bean.
Public sculpture "Cloud Gate" at AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Chicago, 2004-2006. The author is Anish Kapoor. 168 (!) sheets of stainless steel were used for its manufacture
When designing the CHICAGO Central House residential complex, the SAGA Development company decided that a public art object could also become the focal object of the new complex and at the same time a new landmark for the Ukrainian capital. The result of the collaboration between the creators of SAGA Development and the Expolight company was a multimedia digital sculpture — a cube within a cube, integrated into the central facade of the new building. A video series illustrating the evolution of materials for architecture — from wood to "digits" — is broadcast on its edges-screens.
Practically every metropolis has its own landmarks, emblematic objects, identification markers
"The general director of SAGA Development Andrey Vavrysh asked us to develop lighting for a new facility," says the founder and chief lighting designer of the Expolight company Nikolay Kabluka. — We were talking about an innovative and original art object. Initially, they even planned to invite one of the star sculptors like Anish Kapoor himself. The excitement and ambitions of an innovator, Andrey's passion for everything advanced, his willingness to take risks inspired me to create not a physical form, but a virtual, media and interactive sculpture. The first American projects using digital painting suggested to me that this direction would be both innovative and provocative."
Nikolay Kabluka, founder and chief lighting designer of the Expolight company
Kyiv "Kub" is a unique phenomenon. Inside it lives a dynamic form created on the basis of parametric Big Data data. "Although the Cube is integrated into a residential complex," Nikolay notes, "it can become one of the symbols of Kyiv as an independent art chip." A changing and interactive structure that involves citizens and tourists in a unique dialogue with the architecture of the place and the city as a whole." Choosing the form, Expolight specialists decided to "cover" the sculpture with a cubic glass shell, similar to the installation marking the entrance area of the Norman Foster-designed Apple store in Manhattan. To reveal the concept of "Cuba", let's go through the main points on which Mykola Kabluka focused our attention.
From a tree to a number. Evolution of the material
Material is the "flesh" of any architectural object, and it is precisely the evolution of materials that the Expolight developers put at the basis of the concept. "The first building material was wood, then stone, then concrete appeared, which opened new possibilities for us. Today we live in the era of glass and aluminum, which form a completely different aesthetic of our environment. And at the top of this pyramid is a "digit", a material of the XNUMXst century, the possibilities of which we have yet to explore," says Nikolay Kabluka.
Virtual textures of building materials have become the basis of digital sculpting — the virtual "dough" fills a transparent cubic volume, as if trying to spill out beyond its limits. Six textures — six scenarios that replace each other over time.
To reflect the main concept — the evolution of materials — with the help of computer technologies, virtual textures from wood to "digits" have been recreated inside the "Cuba"
In the course of the sun
Just as a person needs air, so architecture and sculpture need light. Light reveals and manifests all aspects of form, all details and cracks, creating a peculiar aura, a luminous shell.
Since in this case the sculpture is virtual, the illusion of volume and relief is created by virtual shadows formed by complex algorithms.
The lighting scheme of the media sculpture takes into account not only the angle of incidence of the sun's rays at a specific point, but also the spectrum of light, from cool morning to warm pre-sunset
"We imitate realistic shadows on the surface of the sculpture, exactly like those that are formed when the sun moves at our latitude. says Nikolay. — Due to the movement of the sun's rays, the angle of incidence of the light changes. The program takes into account the spectrum, which changes from cool morning to neutral, and then to warm, pre-sunset. With the onset of darkness, the extravaganza begins - we use the most advanced museum lighting scheme, recently developed in the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. This innovative approach to museum lighting consists in using lamps with different types of optics to maximally emphasize the nuances of the relief. Of course, in the case of "Cuba", the lamps are also virtual.
The most complex algorithms imitate the shadows on the surface of the sculpture that appear when the sun moves at the latitude of Kyiv
Big data as an artistic tool
The idea, or even the conceptual overarching task of "Cuba," will reflect allegorically, with the help of visual images, the pulsation of urban life. Available metadata — weather, road traffic, information about aircraft arrivals and departures, the number and routing of phone calls — all these were taken as ingredients to create texture No. 6 — digital.
Special algorithms convert digital streams into a three-dimensional image on screens in real time. "We wanted the media sculpture to have its own developing story," says Nikolai. — Real data show how and why the city lives, how it interacts with the world, how transport moves and people communicate. We selected formulas that transform this entire huge array of numbers into visual aesthetic content."
Special formulas transform the available metadata of city life into visual images on the sculpture. Here, for example, information about the capital's traffic is transformed into aesthetic voluminous media content that changes in real time
Photo: Ivan Avdeenko
Everyone's business
Not only does the city interact with the sculpture, but every resident has the opportunity to influence it. To engage passers-by in an interactive dialogue, a cubic model equipped with built-in sensors and sensors was installed on the pedestal in front of the central entrance. Touching the model triggers a tactile reaction that changes the pattern on the virtual faces of the big "Cube". "Touching the sensor model, you can influence the digital sculpture, ultimately changing the movement pattern of its forms. The design and logic of the sensors and controllers were developed by our engineers," explains Mykola Kabluka.
A small cubical form is installed in front of the central entrance. By simply touching it, any passerby can affect the image of the big "Cube"
Teleportation and butterfly effect
The sculpture created by Expolight exists in a strong symbiosis with the media facade of the building. Programs of media illumination of the facade of various dynamics and shades have been developed.
Moving vertically from top to bottom, the backlight completes its movement inside the cube, displaying the corresponding content. So, for example, a cube sometimes turns into an aquarium, into which a waterfall of light falls from the roof of the building. All these metamorphoses are accompanied by sound effects, the background sound is "sewn" into the glass space of the cube.
The sculpture created by Expolight does not exist independently, but in strong symbiosis with the media facade of the building
"No one has done this before us," the author emphasizes the innovativeness of its development. — I had to design from scratch a complex system of controllers, non-standard chips for media facade elements and do magic over LED screens. Difficult for us means interesting. Looking for and finding solutions in a non-standard situation is what brings true happiness to our team."
Photo: Ivan Avdeenko
Media architecture
Kievsky "Cube" is a harbinger sculpture. It is on the brink of the architecture of the future — media architecture, when digital building materials will be widely used to create new visually dynamic buildings. "We live in the digital era, and our picture of the world is already largely based on what we see on the digital channel. The line between the physical and digital worlds is blurring, and we are increasingly immersed in virtual reality," - visionaries Nikolay Kabluka.
And it is difficult to disagree with him. The first swallows of media architecture can also be considered the works of the American designer Refik Anadol. A series of four Wind of Boston parametric canvases in the lobby of the 100 Northern Avenue 100 complex on the Boston street of the same name. His art object Virtual Depictions: San Francisco reproduces parametric sculptures reflecting the history and life of the city on the media wall in the lobby of the 350 Mission skyscraper in San Francisco. And in Montreal, Canada, the Jacques Cartier bridge turned into a grand media installation with interactive lighting.
Nikolay Kabluka, founder and chief lighting designer of the Expolight company
But unlike the Kyiv "Cuba", all these are virtual works on a flat surface, while the sculpture created by Expolight for Kyiv is three-dimensional and is an integral part of the CHICAGO Central House architectural project. High architecture definitely ceases to be banal, boring and faceless. And Kyiv is in the vanguard here.
Below, we decided to tell a little more about the impressive examples of the integration of media art and architecture of the XNUMXst century in the West. Now our capital is involved in this advanced direction.
Wind of Boston. Data Paintings
These are digital paintings on "canvas" measuring 15 x 33 cm in the lobby of the high-rise complex 100 Northern Avenue in Boston. Instead of paints and brushes, their author — media artist Refik Anadol — used Boston Logan Airport data on wind speed, direction, and strength over the course of a year. A special algorithm visualizes the invisible wind patterns of Boston in a series of poetic video pictures.
Wind of Boston. Data Paintings
The author created four dynamic "plots" that visually interpret the interaction between the environment and the city. Each of them is dedicated to a specific distinguishing characteristic of Boston winds. For example, "Hidden Landscapes" is a visual image of the most radical anemometer readings. "Porcelain Memories" (Porcelain Memories) remind us of the incomprehensible force of the storm outside the context of time. "Sea Breeze" explores the paradox of the soft, barely perceptible wind blowing from the sea. "Gust in the City" refers to such a phenomenon as strong winds that suddenly appear in short "flashes", in which Refik saw an invisible dance between the forces of nature and the artificial environment. Thanks to this artistic rethinking of seemingly faceless data, the beauty of the wind as a natural phenomenon becomes visible.
Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal
Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal
The bridge over the St. Lawrence River in Montreal is named after the Canadian "Christopher Columbus" and is an emblem and architectural landmark of the city. In 2017, for the landmark date — the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation and the 375th anniversary of Montreal — a unique interactive lighting concept called Living Connections was developed for the Jacques Cartier Bridge. Processing large arrays of data and reacting to their changes, the system forms a unique light pattern of the bridge. Citizens can control the lighting via Twitter. If, for example, local residents most often discuss the topic of ecology on social networks, then the main color of the bridge becomes green, and if it is about religion or politics, then pink. The artistic idea was created by the MOMENT FACTORY team in collaboration with six Montreal multimedia and lighting studios.
Media sculpture Virtual Depictions: San Francisco
The lobby of the 350 Mission skyscraper in San Francisco is decorated with the work of media artist Refik Anadol Virtual Depictions: San Francisco. The author himself calls it a series of parametric sculptures that tell the story of the city and the people living around it. This is a media wall on which, as if on a giant movie screen, a changing video series created on the basis of real life data of the City in the Bay is shown.
Media sculpture Virtual Depictions: San Francisco
The program analyzes them and transforms them into voluminous phantasmagoric and abstract visual images. If you compare it with monumental art, then this is a digital bas-relief, which somehow miraculously constantly changes its shape, and even to the sound. According to Rafik, the main task was to reveal a new poetics of space with the help of media art and architecture of the XNUMXst century. "When creating this work of public art, my goal was to make the invisible visible in order to create a new way to feel the living urban space."
Alexander Roitburd
Artist, director of the Odessa Art Museum
We are dominated by bad taste, cheap decoration, longing for the unrealized XIX century. And here I saw that modern architecture began to appear in Ukraine. By the way, I have a very tolerant attitude towards the architecture with which Kyiv was built in the last fifteen to twenty years, because I remember very well the Soviet one, which was really terrible, despite what people who are nostalgic for the USSR say. But here, in this complex, we see architecture, modern technologies, and concepts, as well as what I personally like very much, the integration of art into life and life into art. This is the dream of the avant-garde, VHUTEMAS and Bauhaus. And the fact that a unique and interactive media sculpture has appeared here is reminiscent of some fantastic novels, some incredible action.
Alexander Roitburd. Photo: Yury Ferendovych PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA
Andrey Vavrysh
CEO of the SAGA Development company
We saw one of the projects in the city of San Francisco — a media sculpture by Refik Anadola, which creates a separate volume, a separate impression. It is located in the lobby of the skyscraper, and thanks to the glass facade, it is easy to see from the outside. When you pass by on foot and see her, or, for example, go to football, or on the contrary, return from it, you do not remain indifferent. In our Chicago Central House project, which embodies one of the most architecturally expressive cities in the world, we wanted it to have something that would draw you here, that would create some kind of feeling in the middle, a response. This is how the idea of this art object appeared, which is an integral part of the complex itself. Architecture can and even should be emotional.
Andrey Vavrysh. Photo: Yury Ferendovych PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA
