Turbo, in progress
In studying the site through photographs, video and other virtual means, what stood out was the sense of the flow of traffic and people. As I searched for a visual source that expresses this, I came upon the a short video that shows the flow coming from the exhaust pipe of an internal combustion engine. Each color reflects the temperature of the various areas of flowing gases. It was beautiful and mysterious and it portrayed the invisible heat and airflow of the vehicles that drive down S. Broadway.
This short clip is brought into the three dimensional realm so that it has a physical/sculptural presence. Each color represents one of the layers of the form and the profile of each when separated by a precise number of inches of empty space suggests a cloud of gas. The plexi glass is lightly sandblasted in an irregular “foggy” way so that there is translucency and a vaporous feeling. The flow forms of the perforated base supports the form and the suggestion of movement forward.
To establish the sense of this two mile stretch as a specific place, I wanted to introduce the turbulence form at a larger scale at each entrance to the area and then along the way have visual reminders placed at different heights and scales so that motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians all experience Turbo from different perspectives.
Programmed lighting at night is an important component of Turbo. By using programmable LED Red/Green/Blue (RGB) lights, the gif of the original file can be programed into the lights themselves. Each LED is actually a mircro computer that can give the impression of the flow of color and light as if the whole form were animated.
