CMU School of Drama


Thursday, September 07, 2017

As We Are interactive sculpture added to Greater Columbus Convention Center

Columbus - Columbus Business First: Columbus may finally be getting an iconic piece of public art that’s unique enough to vault into the national consciousness.

The Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority on Thursday took the wraps off “As We Are,” a 14-foot interactive sculpture shaped in the form of a human head that projects visitors’ faces onto its form using 850,000 individual LED lights.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I think this installation (of sorts) is an amazing idea to really put Columbus on the map. The technology behind the piece is really fascinating and hopefully, the installation can find a way to show and emphasize the importance of technology within art. A lot of people like to separate them, but technology makes art better and art makes technology better, and this sculpture really emphasizes that in a positive way.

Liz said...

According to the article, the city really puts its hope on that this installation may become the landmark that draws not only the residents within itself but people from across the country or even all over the world. It is an interactive installation as people can go the photo booth to take pictures and their face will be shown on the face sculpture. The message it sends is also very uplifting and important: as the face rotates throughout the day, people of different racial identity and facial features can see themselves represented on this sculpture. Columbus wants to present itself as an inclusive and diverse community and making this iconic sculpture is really a great idea.
Echoing to what the previous comment has said, technology and art complement each other and when people integrate them wisely, they can really make a great impact on humanity in an innovative and artistic way.

Monica Skrzypczak said...

This is um… creepy. I’ve never been a fan of projections of people’s faces on things. We have a waterfall installation in Chicago that uses LED lights to show faces of people from Chicago and they are animated a little and the mouth with like shoot water out as the person makes the spit out water face. And it’s just really weird. These things are supposed to incite unity with the city because look! It’s people from the city! But I’m distracted by the bigness of the head. The diversity aspect is great, to show a bunch of different people from different backgrounds and hopefully make you feel more comfortable and at home in Columbus. So even if you don’t know the people on the face you see the celebration of diversity. This one seems a bit better than the Chicago one because you can put your own face on the giant face but it still weirds me out.

Dani Mader said...

I think the concept of this instillation is brilliant in a tourism sort of way. It is designed to specifically show the city has a diverse and unity. But at the same time seems just the tiniest bit fake. The fact that it will use images from its database just to make sure there is a number of skin tones just seems more like its selling something than it is art. I like the idea of celebrating and showing diversity, as long as it does so in a true manner. The technology behind it is fascinating. Even that helps project the city as advancing and a place to give a second glance. I think my favorite part of this article is that when looking to attract more people, and come off as a place to visit, Columbus turned to art. Art truly brings people together and overall was a great choice to bring into the city.

Megan Jones said...

As much as I really appreciate that Columbus is being ambitious by trying to incorporate art and technology together, I'm not really sure how I feel about this sculpture. The fact that it is able to take visitors photos and blow them up like that is a really cool concept, but I do have to agree with Monica that the final product of this comes off as a little creepy. Perhaps it has something to do with the uncanny valley, but it just seems like something is a little off about it. It just keeps reminding me of the giant Wizard head in Wizard of Oz for some reason. However, I do love that they are doing this to try to reflect the diversity within the city itself through this project. Hopefully in the future they can continue to explore different ways to combine art and technology that also help to unite the people of their city.