Client: University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

Overview

The scale of the sidewalks provides for an interactive social (pedestrian) transaction at the sidewalk intersections, which I thought of as a behavioral-poetic device. Viewing the piece from a distance, the waveforms created by the regular spacing of the mound shapes interacting with the periodic waves of pedestrians moving through the piece created a dynamic animated real-time theatre. As one gets closer and into the system the mounds waves become singular objects – particles. The installation had layers of uses and meanings.

Goals

The art installation addressed the problem caused by students crisscrossing the site at class changes and in wet weather thereby tracking mud into the adjacent buildings. This solution to that functional pedestrian problem was to allow for the crisscrossing by creating the diagonal grid of one-foot wide sidewalks.

Process

The space on the University Campus was an area that continually mud into classrooms. I worked with the University Authorities and the Chancellor to find an artistic expression that would also provide a solution to the tracking of mud. The work became a pedestrian walk through space which had dynamic transactional qualities because of the intentional 1ft wide sidewalks.