EmEssKay

Wave was a grant-winning sculpture built for exhibition at Coachella  2012. I was approached to design the patterns that would adorn the sculptures' sides, plasma cut out of sheet steel and welded into great columns. The design was an algorithmically generated pattern based on classic Islamic geometry; then skewed. The design retained it's inherent rotational symmetry while becoming something new and organic- mimicing the severe, boxed sides of the towers that gracefully wove through the air. The patterns were then prepped as CNC paths. Four 30-foot towers bob, bow, wave and move in fluid motion, slowly undulating like blades of grass underwater. The towers are illuminated from within by full color LEDs and by fire at the apex. The sculpture waves across five thirty-foot arcs creating a ripple of fire lighting up the desert sky. WAVE is the world’s tallest wave generator, constructed from towers that dance on the horizon. Four towers, each incorporating six axes’ of movement, controlled in unison by a computer to bring it alive and ripple above the participants’ heads. Wave generates slow moving, high amplitude transverse waves providing a physical example for the visualization of this complex and changing phenomena. Both light and audio are common types of transverse waves. WAVE takes architecture and science to the edge of abstraction. The overall effect of the work is massive, surreal, intimidating, hypnotic and simply stunning. Wave was developed and made with the help of many talented individuals: