Client: City of Muncie

Overview

EXTESS was commissioned by the city of Muncie Indiana to be located in one of their many newly constructed parks. The growing vibrancy of the city’s downtown and its eclectic nature has been steadily increasing, and in reaction to this our artwork at Cornerstone Park plays with perspectives and shifting movements.

Goals

As downtown Muncie looks to the future, it is focused on the evolution of its identity through new ways of thinking. This can be seen through the growth of local businesses and support for art and culture. We intended to represent these concepts physically through artwork that renders this vision.

Process

The overall form is computationally driven by delaunay triangulation, which is a relationship of a set of points to its closest neighbors. This algorithm seemed a fitting way to visually represent the interconnectivity of downtown. The uniquely painted aluminum panels represent the varying business and people that make up the city, uniting in a single structure. Though each plane is unique, their orientations converge in a singular perspective to a unifying point, similar to the focused drive for change in the community. If a user stands in one position behind the piece they can clearly see through the entire installation, letting it almost disappear. As pedestrians and motorists proceed by the park, the angle of perspective will shift and open, continually changing views through the project. The idea is that movement around the park will offer multiple ways to interact with the piece and view the network of panels.