Particle Trap is an immersive, interactive electro-mechanical sculpture designed to be a gateway to the new Google Charleston East Campus. It is meant to inspire community and wonder as a gathering space. Its large scale will be prominent from North Shore Boulevard and Charleston Road and will draw members of the community in with its intriguing form and dynamic motion, while its elegant cable structure will not detract from the impressive architecture of the new facility.

As participants approach the artwork they will notice waves of shimmering light and motion moving through the 3-dimensional space overhead as well as across the plaza pavers. When they enter the space they will discover that their footfalls cause ripples to propagate across the LEDs embedded in the plaza as well as above into the grid of LEDs and fluttering HD platters reflecting and interfering, creating a dynamic immersive experience.

The Crystal Spire is a 40’ tall, 46’ diameter sculpture with 16 LED panels hanging in the shape of an alpine peak. The panels are held up by a central pole and anchored at 12 concrete benches arranged in a circle. They provide shade in the day and a dazzling, interactive light show at night.

The light show includes photographic and video images from nature – waterfalls, clouds, fire, and Hubble photographs. It also includes computer-generated abstractions. Simple mechanical controls allow visitors to modify the show. The show can also be modified by other artists and programmers, perhaps making use of live data parameters from the Internet, perhaps customizing it for special days, like the google.com front page. An open software architecture allows the show to evolve for years to come.

Have you ever seen a pig fly? Chances are you have not, but that doesn’t make it impossible. When Pigs Fly is an interactive, dynamic, vibrant sculpture that invites your mind to reach for the impossible. The pigs will draw visitor’s eyes from afar and offer tactile face to tail interaction; activating and illuminating the South East Plaza both day and night.

DataClouds is a singular sculpture reaching a height 46-feet with wind-blown sails made of thousands of brightly polished stainless steel bits (“data”), which form two graceful “clouds” overhead. The sails are balanced on precision bearings with a compound axis of rotation, creating everchanging and surprising visuals.

Think of the complex and beautiful movement of DataClouds as an allegory for our data-driven world. The sails are held high in the air by a spiral tube, which will also rotate by wind and human power. This creates a true “three body problem” with unpredictable and complex motions. The base is a rotating stone bench that allows both play and rest, as well as activating the sculpture above.

“Life in the Seagrass” will be a true occasion-sculpture. A fully immersive underwater world composed from a symphony of stalks of cool, smooth steel that will grow from Charleston East Plaza’s paving. They will sway as if held in warm ocean currents. We will inhabit them and share their spaces; resting, playing, and exploring. Meeting and gathering. Connecting to our community and to the natural diversity that surrounds us.

The seagrasses will generate an electrifying sense of occasion. They will draw us together and anchor us to our community. They will create a space that is family friendly and spellbinding for children. A refuge of discovery and well-being. A space that will work in perfect symbiosis with the landscaping and architecture of the Plaza, Mountain View and California. A space that will transport us to other worlds, and connect us to our own.

The EGG which is possibly the largest egg existing in this earth will mirror the world surrounding it during the daytime, while in the nighttime it gently stands with countless particles of light.

The scale of the EGG brings overwhelming existence, though not pressuring who sees it by the familiarness of its form and will be unforgettable once seen.

The program of the light beam that changes every day of the week- will bring liveliness to the EGG, and the light that goes up the spiral (=time) may conjure images of DNA, the blueprint of life.

People who see THE EGG will all imagine what will be born out of this, and due to the form and lights of this artwork they will imagine something beautiful will be born.

“Imagining something beautiful” is what I believe is the first step to the new world with love, harmony, and peace.

(NN) is a kinetic sculpture, employing augmented reality, sound and light to approach ideas about time, eco-systems, and paradigm shifts in cultural evolution. This work references weather systems as metaphors for neural activity and the exchange of information, both digital and organic.

(NN) appears as a subtly living machine, with an alternate virtual world surrounding it. Viewers share and participate in the AR experience as freely as in their ‘real’ world. The work is designed to be playful, intriguing, and conceptually rigorous. It will be iconic and spectacular, at all times of day or night, from near and far. Viewers will literally be drawn in to examine and touch the structure. With or without the AR component a sense of wonder is the response we are targeting.

AR allows the sculpture to be an access point to ‘other worlds.’ It also allows the work to grow into the future.

The installation consists of 3 parts; Form, Light, and Space. Light is world’s first artwork based upon the idea of utilization of Machine Learning in the context of space discovery and astronomical research through NASA’s Kepler Data Sets. By using Google’s Tensorflow research models, Ouchhh will visualize and stylize the findings of Neural Networks for identifying exoplanets using the dimming of the flux. The resulting work will invite visitors to plunge into the fascinating world of space discovery through immersive visuals. The installation will offer a poetic sensory experience and is meant to become a monument of mankind’s contemplative curiosity and profound need for exploration.

The form will directly deal with Google Campus’s data and display it to itself while Space will be a homage to the history of the world of science through an AI trained on a huge corpus of scientific text.

Treehive is a monument depicting the interplay of human ingenuity and collective consciousness with technology and material science. It takes the form of a giant tree-like structure with a honeycomb-domed canopy. Visitors are invited to explore the structure via a double helical staircase representing mankind’s ever-changing influence on the natural world. The staircase spirals through the sculpture as it transitions from stone, to copper and bronze, to steel, iron, concrete and aluminum, and finally to fiber-reinforced composite materials and architectural fabrics. This progression of materials signifies mankind’s transition from the Stone Age, to the Bronze Age, through the Industrial Revolution, and into the digital age. The journey through changing materials facilitates exploration of the dynamic history of fabrication technology.

ASPIRE is a monumental tower rising 100ft into the air, glistening in the sunlight. The structure is made of steel square tube, twisted and interwoven in a mesmerizing graceful hollow spire. At the bottom, the tower splays out into a 56ft diameter pavilion with integrated bench seating. Carbon fiber covers the lower spaces of the tower to provide a shady respite during the day to gather and connect. At night, ASPIRE becomes an interactive lighting wonderland. Hundreds of illuminated glass orbs in the center of the spire enact complex color patterns in response to participant input through a centrally located touchscreen interface. ASPIRE will amaze and entertain Google campus employees and tourists alike, creating a vibrant dynamic community space for human connections and technological advances.

Find the exact opposite side of the world from Google. Digitally, we will extract this underwater landscape and turn it into a surface, exaggerating highs and lows. We will peel back and fully invert the seafloor – as if Earth’s crust was an orange. The tactility of the “surface” side will be peeled up into an arching cantilevered form. The opposite side of the Earth, above one’s head will provide deep shade for intimate summer performances and basking sunshine in the South facing winter sun. Sunrise and sunset will cause “curling” shade forms.

The sculpture’s digital interface will adapt over time through open calls every 5-7 years. Our vision begins with a live-feed that is literally the sea on the opposite side of the world… So that at night in Mountain View we see the daytime Ocean on the opposite side of the globe.

“Veracity” is a monumental stainless steel sculpture with complex geometries and faceted surfaces. The art is a bold Plaza Icon whose composition is harmonious with the East Campus architecture. During daytime viewing, the art has strongly interactive properties between ambient light and skies; change your vantage and the art reflects new, ever-changing perspectives of the surrounding landscape. The reflective qualities of the material and composition encourage the audience to move explore the art, often. By night, a sophisticated lighting system that responds to fluctuations of motion will energize the sculpture. I will collaborate with the Google Team to tailor optimal, dynamic lighting to enhance “Veracity” and East Charleston Campus Experience.

Google has a well-known philosophy which: “It’s best to do one thing really, really well”. I agree. The thing I do well is create landmark sculpture; I can insure “Veracity” is a proud ambassador upholding the innovations achieved at Google.

For the Charleston East Campus, Studio Echelman proposes to adapt and reinstall our sculpture which premiered at the TED Conference’s 30th anniversary in Vancouver, with an interactive lighting component sponsored by Google highlighting its technology. The sculpture offers the opportunity for Google to partner again in creating dynamic interactive lighting interface where people can paint in real time with their cell phones.