Pinnannousu Robotic Ice Sculpture Performance

As it is with creative process, many threads tend to get bundled to (ideally) elegant solutions. In this case, I had been working with computational caustics before, as well as ran some research grants in looking at snow and ice in the context of new media. When I was invited to create new work at the Sapporo International Art Festival, these threads convereged, and given the festival's theme "Last Snow", the different strands convereged, and a sense of purpose came together.

Well, quite simply, this is what I do. I might say that I am Claude Levi-Strauss's "bricoleur", a kind of hacker that combines technological and cultural means to convey meaning. My whole professional life, I have explored the liminal space between virtual and real. transferring the qualities of the digital to the physical and vice versa. From interaction design point of view, I like to explore theoretical questions in practical context, creating museum experiences, art in public space, or other forms where the story and the medium blend together.

In this interview, I am writing the answers in first person, but it should be implicitly clear, that these kinds of works are ALWAYS collaborations. So, in this case, my long time collaborators Mark Pauly from EPFL, and Rayform were instrumental in calculating the geometry needed for the image to emerge from refracted light. They have developed the techology over many years, and I've always marveled its beauty and elegance. At the same time, the project brought me together with AATB, an artist duo from Zürich, who create art with robots for living. So, all these technical challenges had very human solutions.