Related Projects

Working with Buildings
  • Man from City Hall

    • Boston City Hall becomes a giant character for First Night celebrations

  • LightPlay

    • A project using refracted light and other day/night lighting effects for a new mixed-use building

  • The Benefit of Mr. Kite

    • Re-envisioning a walkway in San Diego, CA into a choreographed path of light and color

  • Terullian Mantle

    • A multi-part response to the International Day Parade of New York City’s Public School 89

  • Glove Cycle

    • Gloves go through a life cycle while leading passengers down into a Cambridge subway station

  • Pillars of Thought

    • Transforming architectural elements into guardians of thought in the Scottsdale Public Library

  • Drawn Water

    • A permanent piece at the Cambridge, MA Water Treatment Plant about where water comes from and where it goes

  • 300 Summer Street

    • An artist-owned live/work studio building in Boston’s Fort Point area with recycled steel plate sculpture for the public spaces

  • City at the Falls

    • A terrazzo floor and lighted ceiling brings the river and the city into the Louisville Convention Center

Transportation & Travel
  • SunFlowers, An Electric Garden

    • Sculptural solar collectors provide shade and lighting for a bike path

  • The Zanjero’s Line

    • A recreational path along 4 miles of the Highline Canal in South Phoenix, AZ

  • Arbors & Ghost Trees

    • Bus stops and shaded arbors as markers of transformation and memory along a major road in South Phoenix, AZ

  • Glove Cycle

    • Gloves go through a life cycle while leading passengers down into a Cambridge subway station

  • Wall Cycle to Ocotillo

    • A trail of 20 sculpture sites mitigating between 5 miles of highway and neighborhoods in Phoenix

  • Speed of Light

    • Mags’ students illuminate the future route of transit connecting eight communities around Boston

Missouri
Light, Sound & Peformance
  • Man from City Hall

    • Boston City Hall becomes a giant character for First Night celebrations

  • LightPlay

    • A project using refracted light and other day/night lighting effects for a new mixed-use building

  • SunFlowers, An Electric Garden

    • Sculptural solar collectors provide shade and lighting for a bike path

  • Passage

    • A multifaceted project for the new South Mountain Community Library, connecting people through words to the landscape of South Phoenix

  • Pillars of Thought

    • Transforming architectural elements into guardians of thought in the Scottsdale Public Library

  • The Bronx River Golden Ball

    • An annual event in the Bronx and Westchester Co., NY, where the ball focuses diverse communities on the river

  • Light Gate

    • Glass laminated with prismatic film captures the sunset for the Centennial Art Project for Manhattan Beach, CA

  • Submerge

    • Video collaboration by Mags Harries & Catherine Siller for Art on the Marquee at the Boston Convention Center

  • Lucid Moment

    • Bringing together light, liquid, movement, and space

  • Playback

    • Reclaiming a derelict tennis court with sound and nylon straps

  • One Legged Table

    • Bringing communities to the table to discuss global warming

  • The Gallo Wars of Civitella

    • Video work by Mags Harries and Lajos Héder

Terpsichore for Kansas City

  • Location: Arts District Parking Garage, Kansas City, MO
  • Client: Kansas City Municipal Art Commission
  • Size: Light Organ 13′ x 4′ x 60’/ Site 1000′ x 180′ x 60′
  • Materials: Light, sound, electronics, steel, polycarbonate
  • Budget: $470,000
  • Sound Design: David Moulton
  • System Programmer: Matt Harter
  • Composers: David Moulton, Roberta Vacca, Bobby Watson
  • Video Credits: Brit Adair

Video of Terpsichore for Kansas City

Simulation of the Light Organ Display for a Composition by Roberta Vacca

The Kauffman Center and the Garage are located in the Arts District of Kansas City

The Kauffman Center and the Garage are located in the Arts District of Kansas City

Terpsichore for Kansas City transforms the parking ga­rage of the new Kauffman Center for the Perform­ing Arts into into a public art musical instrument with light and sound, a complementary venue to the performances at the Center.  Our artwork extends throughout the entire space of this thousand car, four-story garage, which serves Kansas City’s Arts District.

In Greek mythology Terpsichore was the Muse of Dance and the Chorus.  The central feature of our Terpsichore is The Light Organ, a vertical sculpture of of light tubes, penetrating through the 4-story stairwell of the garage. Programmable LED’s within the Light Organ pipes produce white and blue light to create compositional pat­terns in different rhythms and intensities.  These patterns were composed like another instrument playing with the sound composi­tions in the stairwell.

Terpsichore was the Muse of Dance and the Chorus - painting by by Jean-Marc Nattier (1739)

Terpsichore by Jean-Marc Nattier (1739)

Sound from 108 speakers, activated by mo­tion sensors, plays moving through the garage for people to experience as they walk through space, making it seem like the garage itself is making the music. Composers David Moulton, Roberta Vacca, and Kansas City’s own Bobby Wat­son were commissioned to create the sound works for this project.  The sound design for the Garage was developed in collaboration with composer David Moulton.  Matt Harter is the system programer.  We hope to establish a program with the city and the Kaufman Center to commission composers to contribute pieces in the future and build up a library of compositions for the garage.

Composers Create Light Displays

Roberta Vacca uses a web camera, different objects and gestures in time to her music to make the animation for a light composition that will play on The Light Organ and accompany her music.

David Moulton takes a different approach to composing the light display for his music, moving the web camera slowly over black and white graphics.

See construction images in News.

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