Harbor Fog | |
---|---|
Stilled buoys dream of a lost harbor | |
Artist | Ross Miller |
Year | 2009 |
Type | Sculpture |
Medium | stainless steel, bronze, granite, lights, fog, sound, sensors and sequencer |
Dimensions | .06 acres (240 m2) |
Location | Boston, Massachusetts |
Owner | Mass Department of Transportation |
Harbor Fog, stilled buoys dream of a lost harbor, [1] is a responsive sensor-activated interactive contemporary public sculptural environment located in Boston along the main pedestrian walkway of Wharf District Park Parcel 17, on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. [2] The first permanent public artwork along the Greenway, the concept was selected through a competition for commission by the Mass Highway Department, and integrated into site construction in collaboration with engineers during building of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig). [3]
The Harbor Fog sculpture is part of a genera of environmental artworks that use high pressure cold water fog, hot steam fog, or other gaseous materials, to produce immersive environmental sculpture. [4]
In the 17th century the site was at the edge of Boston Harbor. During periods of development over the following 260 years, urban rubble and fill was deposited, creating made land between former wharfs. The sculpture is inspired by the dynamic historical landform alterations at the location, changing light and weather patterns found at the ocean's edge, [5] and the industrial design of harbor navigational aids. [6]
The sculpture is constructed of three column forms fabricated from stainless steel and bronze, that reference the shape of buoys, each column contains multiple fog nozzles, LED light sources, motion sensors, and sound systems. The sculptural columns are surrounded by a boat-shaped outline of granite seawall blocks, salvaged from landfill containing 18th century piers that were discovered during sub-surface highway construction. The 2000 lb granite seawall blocks are elevated on stainless steel supports that allow the fog to travel under the blocks, and openings between the elevated blocks allow passage into the interior space. Multiple motion sensors on top of the vertical columns register pedestrian activity that is transmitted to a computer processor to control changing sequences of fog, light, and sound. [7]
The technology that operates the sculpture is maintained by the non-profit Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. [8]
Open all year, the water fog system operates seasonally.
The Big Dig was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the then elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport. Those two projects were the origin of the official name, the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Additionally, the project constructed the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge over the Charles River, created the Rose Kennedy Greenway in the space vacated by the previous I-93 elevated roadway, and funded more than a dozen projects to improve the region's public transportation system. Planning for the project began in 1982; the construction work was carried out between 1991 and 2006; and the project concluded on December 31, 2007. The project's general contractor was Bechtel and Parsons Brinckerhoff was the engineer, who worked as a consortium, both overseen by the Massachusetts Highway Department.
Gas sculpture is a concept introduced by Joan Miró to make sculptures out of gaseous materials. The idea of a gas sculpture also appeared in the book Gog, by Giovanni Papini (1881–1956).
The North End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the city's oldest residential community, having been inhabited since it was colonized in the 1630s. It is only 0.36 square miles (0.93 km2), yet the neighborhood has nearly one hundred establishments and a variety of tourist attractions. It is known for its Italian American population and Italian restaurants.
Trinity Buoy Wharf is the site of a lighthouse, by the confluence of the River Thames and Bow Creek on the Leamouth Peninsula, Poplar. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The lighthouse no longer functions, but is the home of various art projects such as Longplayer. It is sometimes known as Bow Creek Lighthouse.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is a linear park located in several Downtown Boston neighborhoods. It consists of landscaped gardens, promenades, plazas, fountains, art, and specialty lighting systems that stretch over one mile through Chinatown, the Financial District, the Waterfront, and North End neighborhoods. Officially opened in October 2008, the 17-acre Greenway sits on land created from demolition of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway as part of the Big Dig project.
Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a 36.59-acre (148,100 m2) park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive, a major milestone in the freeway removal movement, the park was opened to the public in 1978. The park covers 13 tax lots and is owned by the City of Portland. The park was renamed in 1984 to honor Tom McCall, the Oregon governor who pledged his support for the beautification of the west bank of the Willamette River—harkening back to the City Beautiful plans at the turn of the century which envisioned parks and greenways along the river. The park is bordered by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west, and Willamette River to the east. In October 2012, Waterfront Park was voted one of America's ten greatest public spaces by the American Planning Association.
Flaming Lotus Girls is a volunteer-based group of artists who make large-scale kinetic fire art. FLG has been described as a "women-focused anarchist art collective." The group began in 2000, in San Francisco, California, as a group of six women and two men who wanted to gain the fabrication and design experience needed to create large sculptural installations. The group includes over a hundred members of all genders, and a majority of the members are women. Many of the sculptures have interactive elements, allowing the audience to control the lighting, flames, sound, or other effects. The collective's work has appeared throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Long Wharf is a historic American pier in Boston, Massachusetts, built between 1710 and 1721. It once extended from State Street nearly a half-mile into Boston Harbor; today, the much-shortened wharf functions as a dock for passenger ferries and sightseeing boats.
The Olympic Sculpture Park, created and operated by the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), is a public park with modern and contemporary sculpture in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The park, which opened January 20, 2007, consists of a 9-acre (36,000 m2) outdoor sculpture museum, an indoor pavilion, and a beach on Puget Sound. It is situated in Belltown at the northern end of the Central Waterfront and the southern end of Myrtle Edwards Park.
John Harvey McCracken was a minimalist artist. He lived and worked in Los Angeles, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and New York.
Boston Harborwalk is a public walkway that follows the edge of piers, wharves, beaches, and shoreline around Boston Harbor. When fully completed it will extend a distance of 47 miles (76 km) from East Boston to the Neponset River.
Ross Miller is an American visual artist. His work integrates art into the public landscape. Through site-based projects, his work reinforces community identity in outdoor spaces and creates places for private reflection within public environments.
George Sherwood is an American kinetic and environmental sculptor.
Traffic Light Tree is a public sculpture in between Poplar and Blackwall, London, England, created by the French sculptor Pierre Vivant following a competition run by the Public Art Commissions Agency for the London Docklands Development Corporation under their Public Art programme. Originally situated on a roundabout in Canary Wharf, at the junction of Heron Quay, Marsh Wall and Westferry Road, it is now located on a different roundabout near Billingsgate Market in Poplar.
Millers River was a river in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It has since mostly been obscured by landfill and "made land". The small remaining estuary is a remnant of wetlands and open water that once divided Cambridge from Charlestown, Massachusetts. The exact historical course of parts the river is somewhat uncertain, and thus parts of the Charlestown-Cambridge and Somerville-Cambridge borders may have changed due to incorrect historical reconstruction.
Modern sculpture is generally considered to have begun with the work of Auguste Rodin, who is seen as the progenitor of modern sculpture. While Rodin did not set out to rebel against the past, he created a new way of building his works. He "dissolved the hard outline of contemporary Neo-Greek academicism, and thereby created a vital synthesis of opacity and transparency, volume and void". Along with a few other artists in the late 19th century who experimented with new artistic visions in sculpture like Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin, Rodin invented a radical new approach in the creation of sculpture. Modern sculpture, along with all modern art, "arose as part of Western society's attempt to come to terms with the urban, industrial and secular society that emerged during the nineteenth century".
Bremen Street Park is an 18-acre urban park, located in East Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. The park runs parallel to both Bremen Street and the Mass Pike/Route 1A and acts as a green space buffer between Logan International Airport and the residential neighborhoods of East Boston. The park is owned, operated and patrolled by the Massachusetts Port Authority (MassPort). It is also part of the East Boston Greenway, a linear park and shared use path.
A Once and Future Shoreline is a permanent public artwork that graphically marks the edge of Boston Harbor, circa 1630, into the granite paving blocks of the plaza on the West side of the historic Faneuil Hall building. The 850-foot-long artwork depicts the location of a pre-colonial shoreline by graphically etching silhouettes of materials that are found typically along the high tide line. The artwork offers a way to engage the imagination in an exploration of the changes to this now urban site from a salty tidal marsh, to an active pedestrian plaza.
Piers Park is a public park owned by Massport located on the southwest side of East Boston, overlooking Boston Harbor and downtown Boston. Designed by Pressley Associates Landscape Architects of Boston, the 6.5-acre (2.6 ha) park was conceived to reclaim a condemned industrial pier for recreational use, allowing residents and visitors direct access to the waterfront.
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