Client: San Francisco Arts Commission for the Randall Museum
Location: San Francisco, CA, United States
Completion date: 2012
Artwork budget: $100,000
Project Team
Artist
Charles Sowers
Public Art Agent
San Francisco Arts Commission
Other
JW Nickel
Installer: Rocket Science
Overview
Windswept (2011) – Randall Museum/San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA. 35'L x 20'H – aluminum, stainless steel, architectural panel wall system. Windswept is a wind-driven kinetic façade consisting of 612 freely-rotating directional arrows creating a large-scale observational instrument that reveals the complex interactions between the wind and the building. The wind arrows serve as discrete data points indicating the direction of local flow within the larger phenomenon.
Goals
Windswept transforms a mundane and uninspired architectural façade into a large-scale aesthetic/scientific instrument to reveal information about the interaction between the site and the environment.
Process
The client desired a way to activate a blank facade. My proposal resonated with the Randall Museum's mission to engage the city's youth in the natural world.