Digilog Futures
May 5th - June 2nd, 2012
83 Gallery, Columbus Ohio
Founder of The Nine, a Brooklyn based design collective.
Led nine colleagues to design, fund raise, and construct a 60’ installation that paired analog constructs of found objects with an ethereal wireframe made from rope using digital scripting techniques. Photos by Asteria Photography
Returning for the first time to the hometown of my Alma mater Ohio State I recruited nine of my peers to join me in displaying my largest installation to date. The project, funded through kickstarter, was a collaborative effort from conception to realization. Our collective passion for architecture and eagerness to build led us to embark on the experiment together. We collaboratively designed, funded, and fabricated the piece while carrying full time design positions at various NY firms. From the hours of 6pm-9am we held a 2nd full time job, Digilog Futures. Our relentless determination set the pace for the project and the positive response from the experiment leaves us hopeful for future commissions for “The Nine”.
The piece explores how two distinct methods can interact. Each design sensibility has a particular character of its own that is indicative of certain members of our group. The major system consists of a “tree” designed using a scripting program. This was an intentional reversal on the traditional understanding of “trees” as “organic.” Its branches spread over the gallery and touch down to create moments with which our minor system engages. This minor system is a collection of waste industrial material that, at their most simple, reflect small artificial life forms. This provides us with our second thought reversal through the challenging of accepted notions of production and design. The minor system plays with elements of improvisation while the major element is well orchestrated and precise.
In the months leading up to our road trip we prototyped, revised, and pre fabricated major portions of the piece within our own apartments. This literal living within our creation proved to be immensely helpful in the overall orchestration of the install process. The testing of connection methods, labeling systems, and sequencing made for a timely delivery of the final product.
The schedule for the on-site install was extremely demanding. After a coincidental nine hour drive through a stormy night we arrived at the doorstep of 83 gallery with our installation in pieces. Over the following 60 hours we became intimate with the very space with which we had virtually spent orbiting during the prior months. Sticking with our game plan and following the construction set that I put together we worked in small teams that each tackled a portion of the overall model. Slowly but surely the piece started to take shape and our relentless efforts completed the task with time to spare.
The “Mega May Hop” as it came to be known drew an enormous crowd and shattered 83 Gallery’s attendance records. The show stepped outside the gallery’s normal show typology of painted media and with us successfully leaped into the world of interactive installations. The packed opening spilled outside the gallery and onto the streets at times making the whole night very gratifying to each of us within the group. The response to our creation from the local art community was overwhelming and very encouraging to us as we work on developing the next iteration of our collaboration. Digilog Futures was featured in a number of articles that appeared in local publications such as Columbus Underground, and Columbus Alive. For more information about the event as well as our process please go to www.83gallery.com or simply search for Digilog Futures on Facebook or Kickstarter.