DESCRIPTION OF WORK

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Sketch of a field of grass, Pacific Coast, 2004.

This piece explores the idea that a memorable time, place or experience can be condensed in a singular, physical object that embodies the essential qualities of that experience.  It is one in a series of sketches that encapsulate the experience of watching the rise and fall of a summer breeze across a field in a single blade of grass (or a series of blades of grass).

This particular sketch is comprised of eight blades of grass.  Each blade is a complete computational system with the ability to sense and respond to its environment.  A simple networking protocol is used to propagate wind data down the network, blade by blade.

The technology has been designed to be modular.  Future sketches in the series can be scaled up in size merely by adding blade “nodes”. Other variations between sketches will include changes in the software algorithms that control movement and the generation of wind.  The technology developed for this piece is ultimately scalable to a grid network, allowing for an entire gallery space to be transformed into a dynamic kinetic experience.

While it was much more challenging to realize this piece as a collection of decentralized computers rather than as a monolithic computer controlling a network of addressable sensors and actuators, the individual response each node has to its surroundings is an important conceptual element of the piece. Just as in a real field, each blade responds to the wind in a slightly different way.  Each blade is both physically distinct and simultaneously part of a larger aggregate phenomenon. The emergent behavior that comes from the interrelation of independent nodal behavior interpreted in a group context is fundamental to the overall aesthetic effect.

Size/Display Requirements: Each node is 3.25 inches wide x 18 inches tall x 4.5 inches deep (including mounting hardware).  Each node is to be mounted directly on the wall, 60 inches off the floor, with two 1/8-inch screws.  The eight nodes are mounted in a horizontal line, with 1 inch of space between each node.  3.5 inch x 1.5 inch PC boards drive each node and are mounted directly to the wall roughly 3 feet beneath the node.  The PC boards are powered by a standard, 12-volt DC transformer. The whole piece draws under 2A of current.  The overall footprint of the piece is 33 inches wide x 78 inches tall x 4.5 inches deep. No maintenance is anticipated, nor is any significant set up or shut down requirements.

 

Artist’s Statement

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In my work I isolate and extract the defining elements of a physical place or moment in time, and then use those elements as a palette for designing objects that embody the essential quality or qualities of the actual experience.  

While we all experience the world with analog sensory and cognitive systems, there is a digital-like granularity to how we analyze and store experiences. We don’t remember every single point in time as a discreet instant -- rather our memories are aggregations of a number of instances that we have grouped based on some perceived similarity. Our memories are often are defined by a very singular element: the quality of light on a cold fall day; the hive-like dance of people and machines at a crowded downtown intersection; the visible rise and fall of a summer breeze as experienced by a field of grass. My interest is in isolating the definitive qualities of remembered experiences and reinterpreting them within the confines of a constructed object; essentially condensing the whole of a lived moment in time in a refined, physical reinterpretation.

Ryan Wolfe is an artist and designer based in San Francisco. He has won a number of awards for interface and interactive design. He is currently working on transferring his expertise in interaction design from the screen to three dimensions. He creates physical sculpture and objects that utilize embedded systems to enable new types of physical interactions.