Client: Miami DADE County Arts Commission for The Miami-DADE Fire Rescue Headquarters and National Training Center

Overview

The building front facade wall of the Miami Fire Rescue Headquarters and Training Center is transformed into an evolving LED color display driven by fusing the facility’s activities with the Global and Local lightning data.65’W x H27’H x 12″D.

Goals

The goal of my public art is to let the unique characters of each site to speak for itself. It often goes beyond simple aesthetic and architectural considerations. Here, In this case, the dynamic geo-meteological nature of this site being the U.S. lightning capital, and the cultural association of Thor being the patron saint of fire fighters had directly inspired the conceptual design of the artwork. And most satisfyingly, we are able to directly harness the natural forces of lightning and the fire safety training activities of the facility together, fueling the on-going dynamic content of the art display. In an unexpected way, the place and its human activities are faithfully displayed through aesthetic means, with minimum inference from the artist.

Process

The artist layout the concept and schematic design, consult with the architect on-site for all logistical and formal considerations. And collaborated with the software and hardware designers as well as the engineer for electronic and physical computer design and implementation for the on-going dynamic display of the artwork content.

Additional Information

This dynamic facade wall literally fuses the fire rescue training activities (footages) with the global and local lightning data in real time to drive the ever-evolving stream of unpredictable color pattern.