Oscillation
Touring Manager: Creos
Locations: New York, NY; Grand Rapids, MI; Edinburgh, Scotland; Calgary, Canada; Clearwater, FL; Montreal, Canada; Ottawa, Canada; Pittsburgh, PA; Seattle, WA; Oklahoma City, OK; and more..
Service: Design & Fabrication
Features: Codaworx Magazine, Downtown NY, The Scotsman, Oklahoman, Crosscut, ABC 13, and more…
Awards: NYCxDesign Honoree, ArtPrize Featured Project and Overall Installation Finalist
Oscillation is an interactive touring installation that uses sight, sound, and movement to spark spontaneous inclusive community activity and social interaction through open-ended play. The installation reacts similarly to a Theremin, a musical instrument that you can play with movement and without touching. It doesn’t take any skill to play the pieces just some subtle movements. As you walk toward the pieces, they play different sounds and pitches depending on your distance from them. When you move and dance around them, they also reflect and refract light in different ways revealing different colors and filtered reflections based on the angle it is viewed. When designing Oscillation, we wanted to create a piece that would have a similar but different identity during the day and at night. During the day, the pieces reflect the surrounding environment and often become the perfect Instagram backdrop, and then at night, the pieces illuminate from within and cast a splash of changing colors within the surrounding space.
“I stumbled into this work as I was taking a walk during Covid lockdown and it immediately brightened my day.”
In the design, we also wanted to create a piece that could travel and could be placed in a variety of different locations. To do this, we created Oscillation as a series of five parts that are deconstructed from a solid cube using a Voronoi algorithm. This allows the elements to feel cohesive but can be placed in an endless amount of ways within a space. The crystal-like structures begin to disrupt the once static underutilized spaces with a moment of open-ended playful activity. The result is a totally immersive experience that breaks down social barriers and fuels joyful conversations between strangers.
This piece isn’t just about sparking an interaction between the person and the piece but also sparking connections between people.
“Oscillation fit so perfectly in our space and was such a hit, thank you so much for all your work in getting it here, Toledo loved it!”
“It was so inspiring to see how Oscillation sparked joy, excitement, and creativity within our city. ”
