University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Science and Engineering Building

Pendulum Artwork Commission
Living Lenses-
Louise Bertersen and Po Shu Wang
Budget: $96,000
To be installed summer 2009.

From the Artists’ Narrative...
“The Foucault pendulum makes use of a simple phenomenon to point out the complex counterintuitive reality that we live in, and demonstrates the beauty of imaginative reasoning. It is against this context that we explore how we could succeed or fail in finding an aesthetic solution that can complement it.

We start with the premise that a moving pendulum induces ‘hypnotic’ influence on the viewers. And with a simple instrument, we will monitor viewers’ vital signs responding to the pendulum. We will use this to be the generator of the content for an artwork that is directly fueled by the pendulum, and intimately conditioned by the viewer’s state of mind, health, age, and other personal factors.

The artwork is designed to couple with the Pendulum to become a single interactive devise, through which, viewers can have hands-on exploration with the entire Pendulum Artwork installation. The physical components of this work consist of a 30” diameter silent whirlpool, centered on a 7’ diameter black granite paving, surrounded by two 6’ diameter stainless steel border bands. Embedded biofeedback electronics provide the physical interface between the viewers and the Pendulum Artwork installation.”

Click here to see a proposal image