Client: Art in Public Places, City of Aurora, Cultural Services Division
Location: Aurora, CO, United States
Completion date: 2017
Artwork budget: $300,000
Project Team
Artist
Joe O'Connell
Creative Machines
Artist
Creative Machines
Creative Machines
Overview
Stories Interweave was inspired by the variety and diversity of languages spoken in Aurora with the goal of celebrating the connections between these groups through language. The skin of each sculpture is made up of different languages cut into steel and welded together to create three-dimensional lantern-like forms intermixing languages and stories.
Goals
Words typically tell stories when arranged in phrases and sentences, and the shapes of these sculptures will add additional narrative meaning to the phrases. Therefore, the piece will invite the viewer to visually move through the swarm of words and create new phrases or connections with each visit. During the day and night, intense point source LED lighting will cast intricate colored shadows around the hanging sculptures. During the day, the lighting will project into shadowed areas and at night it will project largely against the ceiling. The lighting automatically cycles through different colors over time. The colored shadows encourage visitors to move and pose within the colorful projections.
Process
We gathered phrases and stories from the local population and combined them to create a two-dimensional ‘word cloud’ pattern and to connect these groups in one piece that represents Aurora’s population.
Additional Information
Medium: stainless steel, LED lighting, acrylic / Dimensions: : 3’ 10” height x 5’ 4” diameter - 8 total pieces