Client: EMAAR
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Completion date: 2018
Artwork budget: $200,000
Project Team
Art Consultant
Anne-Marie Paquette
L4 Studio
Art Consultant
Steve Blanchette
Wireframe
Artist
Mitchell Akiyama
Overview
Wave-Field’s main intention is to give people agency over the urban site the artwork inhabits. All spectators, whether active or passive, are immersed in a heteromorphic soundscape, forming an undulating field that fluctuates between surprising syncopations and abstract sound expansions. Each seesaw is inhabited by a foreign entity, each with its own temperament and its own musical vocabulary. Set in motion, they burst into a menagerie of electric calls that resonate with the site’s urban pulse, blurring the boundaries between sound and landscape.
Goals
The artwork was installed along the Dubai Fountain promenade for a period of 12 weeks, from February 2018 to April 2018.
Process
L4 Studio joined forces with Wireframe to produce and manage a world tour of Wave-Field created by CS Design and Lateral Office with soundscape by Mitchell Akiyama. In 2018, Wave-Field Variation A through E were exhibited in Aberdeen (Scotland), Dubai (UAE), Istanbul (Turkey), Riga (Latvia) and El Alamein (Egypt).
Additional Information
The sound design for Wave-Field takes its inspiration from the half-whimsical notion that electronic systems possess a life, a vibrancy, and a curiosity that is unknowable to us.