CHIASMA
Chiasma will be a contemplative work integrated with both the context and architecture of the University of Central Florida’s new Health Sciences campus, Tavistock Common. At the heart of the Common’s grand expanse, the elements that comprise Chiasma will evoke the very essence of human life that the College of Medicine represents.
Water and air are indispensible to our lives. The three elements of Chiasma – the Resonant Vessel, the Orb Sensor and the Tavistock Common piazza surfacing – will work in tandem to consider human vitality through the movement of air and water, engaging the viewer as a participant and measure of time and life.
The Resonate Vessel will be a circular pool of water with bronze hand pads set flush into the rim at each of the cardinal directions. An individual who touches these responsive sensors will have their heartbeat transmitted to a hidden control system, which will initiate a series of events: beginning with a pulse of water in the pool breaking the surface, then another and another, all syncopated to the unique rhythm of the participant’s heart rate. These pulses will crescendo into jets of water above the surface. The viewer’s quintessential life rhythm, his or her heartbeat, will be translated and magnified into an aerial and fluid pulse from the waters of the Resonate Vessel. The action will be sustained for a period of time and then fade out. The controls will then reset for another person.
The Orb Sensor will be a large, gilded sphere suspended above the plaza from three points on the semicircular College of Medicine. Played by the inevitable fluctuating currents of the piazza’s moving air, a long scribe at the Orb’s base will continuously “write” the eternal message of the wind onto the surface of the water that fills the Resonate Vessel, suggesting the fundamental role of water and air in life.
The Tavistock Common piazza hard-surface paving will ripple outward in three-dimensional concentric rings, which can be clad in various materials, including custom-fitted red brick. Echoing the drama of the Resonant Vessel, the piazza surface will be activated with a series of gently rising undulations emanating outward.
At the Common’s outer perimeter, we imagine an abstract serpent tracing the full circumference of the 80-foot circle, suggesting the eternity of life and the legacy of the mythical healer Asclepius. Composed of paving tesseri, the ouroboros will imply the cyclical nature of being, while directly referencing the campus’s function and purpose.
Chiasma will transform the Tavistock Common into a dynamic meditation on the vitality of life as mediated by the invisible forces of the air above and water below.
CHIASMA
Chiasma will be a contemplative work integrated with both the context and architecture of the University of Central Florida’s new Health Sciences campus, Tavistock Common. At the heart of the Common’s grand expanse, the elements that comprise Chiasma will evoke the very essence of human life that the College of Medicine represents.
Water and air are indispensible to our lives. The three elements of Chiasma – the Resonant Vessel, the Orb Sensor and the Tavistock Common piazza surfacing – will work in tandem to consider human vitality through the movement of air and water, engaging the viewer as a participant and measure of time and life.
The Resonate Vessel will be a circular pool of water with bronze hand pads set flush into the rim at each of the cardinal directions. An individual who touches these responsive sensors will have their heartbeat transmitted to a hidden control system, which will initiate a series of events: beginning with a pulse of water in the pool breaking the surface, then another and another, all syncopated to the unique rhythm of the participant’s heart rate. These pulses will crescendo into jets of water above the surface. The viewer’s quintessential life rhythm, his or her heartbeat, will be translated and magnified into an aerial and fluid pulse from the waters of the Resonate Vessel. The action will be sustained for a period of time and then fade out. The controls will then reset for another person.
The Orb Sensor will be a large, gilded sphere suspended above the plaza from three points on the semicircular College of Medicine. Played by the inevitable fluctuating currents of the piazza’s moving air, a long scribe at the Orb’s base will continuously “write” the eternal message of the wind onto the surface of the water that fills the Resonate Vessel, suggesting the fundamental role of water and air in life.
The Tavistock Common piazza hard-surface paving will ripple outward in three-dimensional concentric rings, which can be clad in various materials, including custom-fitted red brick. Echoing the drama of the Resonant Vessel, the piazza surface will be activated with a series of gently rising undulations emanating outward.
At the Common’s outer perimeter, we imagine an abstract serpent tracing the full circumference of the 80-foot circle, suggesting the eternity of life and the legacy of the mythical healer Asclepius. Composed of paving tesseri, the ouroboros will imply the cyclical nature of being, while directly referencing the campus’s function and purpose.
Chiasma will transform the Tavistock Common into a dynamic meditation on the vitality of life as mediated by the invisible forces of the air above and water below.