Client: 5/3 Bank
Location: Cincinnati, OH, United States
Completion date: 2021
Project Team
Artist
Danielle Roney
Danielle Roney Studio
Art Consultants
Callie Hoddap and Ed Capannari
The Art Company
Installation
Tom McKerrow
TM Graphics
Overview
UNA is a site-specific data-sculpture for Fountain Square, Cincinnati, OH. Roney Studio was asked to create an iconic artwork emblematic of how people come together collectively to support each other. The local Cincinnati community is represented throughout the data pattern fluctuating across the sculpture formation. Composed of data-sets from Google searches, these patterns reflect online support systems reaching out across the Cincinnati region early in the Covid-19 Pandemic. UNA tells a poetic story about how people interacted and connected to overcome a time of isolation.
(733) 3″ acrylic tubes, stainless steel cable, custom hardware, algorithmic search data
9’3” W x 42’ L x 10’8” H
Goals
Extending the communicative logic of UNA, individual elements fluidly join together and move apart in sections of oscillating density and porosity. This creates a visual language highlighting the interconnection between the individual and the collective that forms the foundation of this thriving and supportive community.
Responding to the spatial dynamics of the site, 733 acrylic objects float above the lobby atrium in a data-driven form anchoring the visitors’ experience. Natural light filters through the optics of the two-toned material, creating cloud-like opacities. Interactions between light and form respond to the transition of time and space, illuminating themselves at different proximities and paces while accentuating movement through the atrium with undulating views.
Process
Roney Studio provided an iterative design process developed with the client and design team. Responding to the deeply engaged client framework, UNA combines Roney Studio’s custom computational, data-driven design process with intricate hand-based sculpture fabrication and assembly methods, presenting a poetic, considered vision of a multiplicity of potentials. This committed design phase resulted in a meaningful vision of the community's strength at the center of civic life for Fountain Square for years to come.