Jaclyn Saik- Looking Outwards 09

This week, I chose to look at an artist that Sophia Kim found in week 7. “Unnumbered Sparks” is a giant interactive installation that was made by artists Janet Echelman, Aaron Koblin and the rest of the people at Google Creative Lab. The installation was made to celebrate TED’s 30th anniversary, and was installed in Vancouver, Canada from March 15-22, 2014. It was most effective at night, when it was illuminated.

I was interested in this piece not only because it’s absolutely beautiful and something I would definitely pay to see in real life, but also since it is work from  the Creative Lab and I’ve always been interested in what they put out.

Sophia did a really good job talking about how interactive the sculpture is with devices like tablets and smartphones. I found it interesting that the sculpture is a representation of Google Chrome: since the lighting represents a “single fullscreen Google Chrome window over 10 million pixels in size”. This is also a pretty obvious way for Google to brag about their own web browser, but nevertheless, it’s pretty to look at.

Something that I want to look further into the the library Polymer, which the entire project is based on. Polymer is an open source library that lets you make unique, customized HTML elements. As a future digital designer, I find it interesting that there are libraries like this where you can create data that’s open to the public to use. In a way, it makes this art feel more approachable and easier to fathom.