Social Studies---2004
Project Site:
Lattie Coor Hall/ Social Sciences Building
Funded by:
Arizona State University, Tempe
This public art program is located on a six-storey, glass-faced tower on the ASU campus. Glass modules are inscribed with fragments of languages, suggesting that language is a raw material that will be given form and disseminated as an ongoing process. Imprinted as a translucent white scrim on the glass, the typographic modules are replicated and randomly distributed upon selected curtain wall units, to give the facade a certain Rosetta Stone inscrutability. The fragments of letterforms suggest a cultural spectrum with a quantitative undercurrent.
To engage natural phenomena and to reference the social dynamics between the University and the outside community, a typographic structure extends from the upper edge of the west facade. As the sun skims the west facade, the word Explore - legible in English or Spanish - is cast as a shadow on the facade, varying by time of year and time of day, interacting with the solar cycles. Directed west to the Tempe community, Explore is both an explanation of the University's purpose and an invitation to the community, underscoring the societal role of the University.
Lattie Coor Hall/ Social Sciences Building
Funded by:
Arizona State University, Tempe
This public art program is located on a six-storey, glass-faced tower on the ASU campus. Glass modules are inscribed with fragments of languages, suggesting that language is a raw material that will be given form and disseminated as an ongoing process. Imprinted as a translucent white scrim on the glass, the typographic modules are replicated and randomly distributed upon selected curtain wall units, to give the facade a certain Rosetta Stone inscrutability. The fragments of letterforms suggest a cultural spectrum with a quantitative undercurrent.
To engage natural phenomena and to reference the social dynamics between the University and the outside community, a typographic structure extends from the upper edge of the west facade. As the sun skims the west facade, the word Explore - legible in English or Spanish - is cast as a shadow on the facade, varying by time of year and time of day, interacting with the solar cycles. Directed west to the Tempe community, Explore is both an explanation of the University's purpose and an invitation to the community, underscoring the societal role of the University.
Constructed of structural steel and aluminum; facade inscriptions produced as enameled frit on tinted glass curtain wall modules.