"Spectacular Spectrums", Design Miami

Miami, Florida - Wynwood Art District, 2012

Color Experiments:
From the primary colors, a continuous spectrum is formed. How the spectrum is divided into distinct colors, is a matter of historical and cultural demand. From Issac Newton’s seven prismatic colors, to an almost immeasurable quantity, culture has continued to distill new colors for a variety of uses. The iconographic presence of color is pertinent to cultural linkages and the periods, which they represent. As our culture advances, so too, does our color palette. Therefore, why is Art Basel, an exhibition dedicated to the celebration of art and design culture, not celebrating its source, Color? Color, as an idea, is an interesting departure point to build an installation around, which can engage both the concept of color and the many levels that color operates within. Through this installation, we can begin to push for a critical discourse regarding the history of color and its cultural significance to art and design. The installation is both about color and the many industries it shapes; architecture, art, fashion, graphic design, and industrial design. Color is the link between all these creative fields. Additionally, the installation will act as an education model by informing the formation of color through the use of only 3 colors. The initial 3 colors are Blue, Red, and Yellow, from which we are able to generate Green, Orange, & Purple. The goal of the installation is to produce a platform to promote and educate the public about the important role color plays in art and design. The installation attempts to produce an illusion from a small pallet of colors, in this case, 3 colors: Red, Blue, and Yellow. From these primary colors and through a simple operation of mixture, we set out to expand the initial 3 colors into 6 total. Purple, Green, and Orange are achieved through a percentage mixture that was perfected by distance & overlapping.

Formal Massing:

The concept for the Coral Reef / Spectacular Spectrums begins with taking the logic of reflections + projections, and merging them to produce a relationship between the natural conditions of the site and our proposed folly. With a strong interest in the use of reflections to consume the world around the folly, they reconfigure and create in what is now a new world emerging on the dance between the observers and the mathematics of the reflective surfaces. This occurrence we are calling sympathetic projections of space. The hyperbolic reflective faces of the folly, planted within the site where active bodies come in contact with the reflective surfaces to produce a series of animated collages, constructed from the non-linear arrangement of the reflective textured surfaces. These projections are performing as psychic vacuums, consuming all artifacts surrounding the pavilion and allowing the pavilion to become a new participant within the site. It can be active or inactive, visible or invisible. The elements of the propose pavilion are set by a series of geometrical operations that are constrained within a descriptive geometrical process, to emphasize the complex projections involved within the material finishes and the surrounding context. The geometrical sequence begins with an upward tapered rhombic cube that is intersected with a series of conical sections positioned at each corner. These intersections are removed, from which we are left with an irregular upward tapered rhombic cube. The rhombic cube is then intersected again with spheres to remove excess mass thus allowing it to be permeable. The material and tectonic makeup of the pavilion is based on a tensioned striped construction of white and mirrored surfaces that are supported by a series of columns, that are the remnants of the conical boolean operation. The end results are a series of surface textures composed of and reflecting natural conditions delivering a subversive critique on the nature of “nature”.