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 The sky above the San Francisco Bay Area showing some of the numbers. |
Pi in the Sky was an experimental, aerial art display where airplanes spelled out pi to decimal 1,000 places in the sky over the San Francisco Bay Area. The display took place on September 12, 2012. It was then displayed again in Austin on March 13, 2014, during the SXSW festival, at which time it was said to be the largest art piece ever displayed in the state of Texas. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
The numbers, each 0.4 kilometres (0.25 mi) [8] high, were created by a group of five [9] skywriting airplanes, and appeared as a dot matrix. [3] The string of numbers was produced in a large loop 161 kilometres (100 mi) [8] in circumference, at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet (3,000 m). [5]
The aircraft used were 1979 Grumman AA-5B Tigers, small, single-engined planes provided by the company AirSign Aerial Advertising, based in Williston, FL. The numbers were produced by spraying natural, burnt-off canola oil, [10] which dissipated, causing no environmental damage. [11]
The exhibition began in the skies over San Jose, then continued over Fremont, Hayward, Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, San Bruno, San Mateo, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and Mountain View. The planes deliberately flew over the headquarters of NASA Ames, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple. [12]
The 2012 display was part of the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial, was conceived by artist ISHKY, and involved a company called Stamen Design. [9] ZERO1 is an art-technology network based in San Jose. The display was intended to draw attention to their biennial showcase for art and technology. [13]
The 2014 display was part of an ongoing project, directed by artist ISHKY (Ben Davis), and again involved AirSign Aerial Advertising. The 2014 display quickly gained publicity making it the number 2 top trending hashtag on Twitter during the display and within 24 hours it was shared and viewed a little over six million times. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant figures of π. It was founded in 1988 by Larry Shaw, an employee of the Exploratorium. Celebrations often involve eating pie or holding pi recitation competitions. In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day. UNESCO's 40th General Conference designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics in November 2019. Alternative dates for the holiday include July 22 and June 28.
Skywriting is the process of using one or more small aircraft, able to expel special smoke during flight, to fly in certain patterns that create writing readable from the ground. These messages can be advertisements, general messages of celebration or goodwill, personal messages such as a marriage proposals and birthday wishes, or acts of protest.
Ashby is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station located beneath Adeline Street to the south of its intersection with Ashby Avenue in South Berkeley of Berkeley, California. The station includes park-and-ride facilities with 715 automobile parking spaces in two separate parking lots.
Andronico's Community Markets is a supermarket chain based primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its first store was founded in 1929 on Berkeley's Solano Avenue by Greek immigrant Frank Andronico.
Jonathon Keats is an American conceptual artist and experimental philosopher known for creating large-scale thought experiments. Keats was born in New York City and studied philosophy at Amherst College. He now lives in San Francisco and Italy.
Edwards Stadium is the track and field and soccer venue for the California Golden Bears, the athletic teams of the University of California, Berkeley.
ZERO1: The Art and Technology Network is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to connecting creative explorers from art, science, and technology to provoke new ideas that serve to shape a more resilient future.
La Peña Cultural Center or La Peña for short, is a multicultural center in the United States. It was founded in 1975 by Latin American and Californian allies in Berkeley, California in response to the 1973 coup d'état in Chile, or golpe de estado. The center was a focal point for the opposition-in-exile to dictator Augusto Pinochet during his rule, and later evolved into a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote peace, social justice and community action through cultural arts, education and community action. La Peña is located at 3105 Shattuck Avenue in the Ashby neighborhood of South Berkeley, California
The German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV) is a private school educating children from preschool to grade 12 using bilingual full immersion. It has sites in Mountain View and San Francisco in California. Students graduate the school with both the German International Abitur and the California High School Diploma. The school is accredited with the Western Association of Schools (WASC), as well as the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and by the German government as an official German School Abroad.
The Bay Lights is a site-specific monumental light sculpture and generative art installation on the western span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, designed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its opening. The installation by light artist Leo Villareal includes 25,000 individual white LEDs along 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of the cables on the north side of the suspension span of the bridge between Yerba Buena Island and San Francisco. The installation is controlled via a computer and displays changing patterns that are not meant to repeat. The opening ceremony was held on March 5, 2013.
Mildred Howard is an African-American artist known primarily for her sculptural installation and mixed-media assemblages. Her work has been shown at galleries in Boston, Los Angeles and New York, internationally at venues in Berlin, Cairo, London, Paris, and Venice, and at institutions including the Oakland Museum of California, the de Young Museum, SFMOMA, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Museum of the African Diaspora. Howard's work is held in the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Ulrich Museum of Art.
John Zurier is an abstract painter born in Santa Monica, CA, known for his minimal, near-monochrome paintings. His work has shown across the American West as well as in Europe and Japan. He has worked in Reykjavik, Iceland and Berkeley, Ca.
Susan O’Malley (1976–2015) was an artist and curator from the San Francisco Bay Area, and author of the 2016 book Advice from My 80 Year-Old Self.
Jesse Arreguín is an American politician serving as mayor of Berkeley, California. He served on the Berkeley Housing Commission and Rent Stabilization Board from 2004 to 2009 and represented District 4 on the Berkeley City Council from 2009 to 2016. He is the first Latino elected Berkeley's mayor and one of the youngest mayors in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mayor Arreguin is the President of the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Area's regional planning agency.
Edythe (Edy) Boone, is an African-American artist and activist. She has worked as a muralist, counselor, and art teacher throughout her life in an under-served area in California.
Susan Duhan Felix is an American ceramic artist who lives in Berkeley, California. Felix is well known for creating ceramics using the technique of pit firing. Her art is heavily influenced by spiritual traditions, especially Judaism. J-Weekly reported that Felix “has works in the collections of some highly regarded Jewish institutions: the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow.”
Berkeleyside is a digital newspaper founded in 2009. It covers life and politics in contemporary Berkeley, California, reporting on politics, schools, crime and business, as well as the food scene in the East Bay.
Marlon Mullen is a painter who lives and works in Contra Costa County, California, maintaining a studio practice at NIAD Art Center.
Kala Art Institute is a community arts non-profit organization, artist residency, art classes, and an art gallery, founded in 1974, and located in two locations in Berkeley, California.
Berkeley Art Center (BAC) is a nonprofit arts organization, community art space, and gallery founded in 1967 and located at 1275 Walnut Street in Live Oak Park, Berkeley, California.
