Client: Black Rock City LLC (Burning Man)
Location: Black Rock City, Nevada, U.S.A.
Dates: 26th August – 3rd September 2018
Description: A 5 meter diameter sphere composed of repeating cells. Each cell is to be made from a CNC cut and folded steel plate. The folded plates are fixed together with a bolted connection. The resulting polyhedron has origami like qualities.
Each folded cell has a star like geometry composed of pyramidal forms protruding both in and out which creates unexpected shading as light hits the object. This results in illusionary forms as participants orbit around the installation and invites a different experience depending on the distance of the viewer.
Philosophy: The Orb is a physical manifestation of an algorithmic process. It begins with a sphere, the most simple and pure of 3 dimensional shapes. A single surface that defines the infinite, it can only exist in the abstract world of mathematics. On the playa it is an object of mystery.
Algorithms rule and define the modern world. From the global financial markets to the way we engage with each other on social media, these rigorous mathematical processes operate on digital hardware beneath the surface. An algorithm cannot be seen or heard but understood. It can create or shape a tangible output from an input of values but alone it only exists as lines of code, intricate and complex instructions. The DNA of the digital.
The more power we give to algorithms the more they govern our lives, from the adverts thrust upon us, suggestions of where to eat, or the games we play.
The algorithm has no emotion, it cannot exist without mankind to implement it, but the algorithm narrows our view on the world, showing us only its interpretation of what we like based on a few clicks.
