Shhh
2023, This permanent out door public art piece is at Metropolitan Park in Arlington, Virginia at Amazon’s HQ2 and is part of the Arlington County Public Art collection.
Shhh is comprised of 36 3-d printed plastic debris sculptures, each with internal fiber optics that allow them to glow at night. The concept for Shhh was inspired by the Jack-O-Lantern mushroom, commonly found in the Virginia woodlands near Metropolitan Park. It is one of ~80 known bioluminescent mushrooms. The Jack-O-Lantern, like many bioluminescent mushrooms, only glows at certain stages of its development. Shhh integrates motion sensors that so that their lights subtly respond to movement. After dusk their internal lights undulate slowly at the pace of a calm human breath, increasing their brightness when motion is detected. The filament for 3d printing these sculptures is made from post industrial medical grade polyethylene terephthalate.
Each sculpture originated as either an actual mushroom that was found in nature, then 3d scanned, scaled up and modeled for printing - or from a hand sculpted object that was 3d scanned, scaled up and modeled for printing.
Process
Please check back soon for more images and information about the process as well as a map identifying the types of mushrooms included in the piece.
Collaborators, Contributors + Sponsors
Special thanks to these individuals without whom this piece would not have been possible: Marshall Coles, Robie Driscoll, Coles Driscoll, Kevin Graham, Thilina and the Deep3d Team, Jeremiah Teipen, Luke Sarrantonio, Benjamin Siegel, Kevin Alvarado, Laurie Roberts Conklin and Pat Conklin, Hoang Van, Amnon Hamami, Musa Najamuddin, Meridith McKinley, Peta Black, Fabian Sanin, Aliza Schiff, Jacob Gendelman, Matt Pierson, Stephanie Fallone, Josh Leslierandal, Ronan Hays, Sophia Zapata, Milo Shaw-Smith Gendelman, Angela Giunta, Louis-Phillippe Dugré-Thibaudeau, Karine Alger, Buzz Baldwin, Jimmy Carrere, Emma Fulkerson, Rich Silberfeld, Mitch Davis, Ronguo, Chris Jackson, Michael Zhao, Jonathan Brunelle, Michael Barnhart, Michael Calloway, Gilbert Scriba.
