Wednesday, October 14, 2009
*Walking to the Sky* art piece is more than just pole in ground
The Tartan Online: "The campus community has watched as Pittsburgh’s typical fall showers have delayed the progress of the reconstruction on Carnegie Mellon’s iconic art structure. Walking to the Sky was created by Carnegie Mellon alumnus Jonathan Borofsky, who earned his BFA in 1964."
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12 comments:
Personally, when they took Walking to the Sky down I so hoped it was going to stay down. I don't think it fits well on campus and the safety of it has seemingly decreased over the last two years. The amount of money it must be taking to create and install this new pole must be ridiculous, not to mention the cut is being destroyed by the huge machines needed to install the pole. I wish that they had just gotten rid of the sculpture instead of destroying the grass and wasting our money.
i all was wonder about this pole on the campus and the way it was there and this article helped me to lure more about the pole and why they are replacing it and what are they hoping to gan for the redo but i think that it is some what redials the amount of money that they put in to the pole and trying to fix it all we know is that this one will be down in a few years and they will put up a new one. all of the money that they are wasting one this is some what reduces in my onion. so i hop that this plan works so that they dont have to put any more money in to it.
I mostly agree with Katherine and Robert. However, I do believe that the art structure does represent something good. I don't know if it really has to be up forever considering the trouble that has occurred, but I can see why the university likes it. At this point the money could be used for many more important things.
I think a lot of the campus was hoping the pole would not go back up this week. I see both sides of the argument. Its not particularly beautiful but the message is a very positive one. I think its more interesting as a feat of engineering than anything else and enjoyed the swaying a bit too much last year. It is unmistakably a trademark of our campus...whatever that means.
I hate to admit it but I don't really enjoy the installation either. Although like Elize I understand why it is on campus. I am glad they have replaced the pole. I found it sad that the sculpture was slowly dwindling down to no people at all. I'd rather have a full depiction of the artists intent then a broken one. Even if we don't like it is unique to our campus and community.
Personally, I really like the Walking to the Sky structure! I know a lot of people were hoping it was going to stay down, but I was really happy when they began putting the new one up! I understand the opposing argument, but it is definitely a trademark of our campus, like Elize said. It is such an iconic symbol of CMU, and I think it is a very cool combination of art and engineering.
The debates over the artistic merit of the sculpture aside, I'm happy to see that they're addressing the structural issues that it was facing. Watching the pole swaying whenever the wind would hit it always had me wondering when it would finally have a structural failure, possibly with people in a position to get hurt. It at least seems to be more structurally sound this time around, tapering it will both add stiffness at the base while deceasing the mass at the tip should hopefully change the resonant frequency enough to get rid of the swaying problem.
While I understand those who do not believe this sculpture to be very aesthetically pleasing i was very glad to finally read an article that further explained the intent of the artist and the history of this piece of art. I can certainly value the positive message that this artist is trying to communicate and I very much enjoyed hearing about the evolution that this piece has gone through since its conception. Furthermore i think there is a certain value in having a piece of art on campus that has been seen in different places including a different country.
While I do understand and appreciate the metaphor associated with the sculpture, as we discussed while working on our masks in Design for the Stage, creating the metaphor is not a very successful way of representing the metaphor in order for it to be understood by the artist. [People in this class, will know that I am guilty of this as seen in my mask].
I also love the fact that it is in fact a copy any others exist. If you are going to have a huge piece of art that will become the focal point of campus and of the branding involved in the "marketing" of the school, at least have it be something original that sets us apart from anywhere else.
People can say that Walking to the Sky is a tacky eyesore, but it's OUR tacky eyesore. It's a symbol of CMU, and there is a positive message behind it. Plus, it's not like it's taking up that much space (although the decreased access to the Cut is kind of annoying, but at least that's temporary). We should be glad that the University has addressed the safety hazards that the sculpture was presenting last semester.
While I am not a huge supporter of the Walking to the Sky sculpture, I do agree with Hannah that it defines our campus. One thing that we lack as a campus community is an entrance that defines where we start. Pitt has their bridge and entrance signs, Dusquene has a bridge, we have walking to the sky...
While I am not sure if it is the most attractive or welcoming thing to define our campus, it definitely screams CMU. Perhaps we could have looked at creating a better welcome mat than replacing the statue but that is beside the point.
I beg to differ! Agreed, it is more than an erect pole punctuating the main entrance to our campus, I'm not quite sure what kind of statement it makes about CMU. Also, not quite sure what statement is made about how much money has been spent dealing with the statue over the past year, and whether or not any of that was a good use of our money. I'm also curious why we as a campus wouldn't be interested in commissioning a new statue, given the old one had to be torn down.
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