Sunday, November 15, 2009

A bridge is not a bridge…



Cirkelbroen

In my approach to bridges, the only purpose of them has been associated with taking me to the opposite point from where I start. Well, it seems that bridges can be more than the merely connection of two points as you can see in Copenhagen, Denmark by artist Olafur Eliasson. He is considered for some people as a demi-god of art for his fabulous projects such as the Weather Project in London's Tate Modem, the New York City Waterfalls and other places, and, this time, he has decided to create something different that will “slows them [people] down, and creates a meandering public space”, that is projected to be ready on 2012. You can see the difference:

I kept in mind the discussion of our last two classes, especially for the key questions that Malone (2009) introduces about collective intelligence: who and why, what and how. I felt curious about Eliasson's work and I was fascinated to find out that he has a studio in Berlin, which can be conceived as a laboratory for spacial research. He is not alone in this enterprise: there are 30 people in his team (engineers, architects, craftsmen and assistants) “who conceptualize, test, engineer and construct” large projects. But also, it is interesting to know why Eliasson has given this orientation to his work. He talks about “it makes a difference whether you have a body that feels a part of a space rather than having a body which is just in front of a picture”. Furthermore, he says that “having an experience is taking part in the world. Taking part in the world is really about sharing responsibility”. I expect I can follow his work, it has opened a new dimension for me.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/olafur-eliasson-puts-art-hold-designs-bridge

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/olafur_eliasson_playing_with_space_and_light.html


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