Artwork Location: Level 4 Reception Area
Amy Stacey Curtis generates interactive artwork concepts from her studio in Maine. Each artwork includes instructions, inviting participants to become collaborators. Curtis turns the concept over to the audience, so the experience of the installation proceeds in unanticipated ways. This is part of the art. Curtis strives to convey our part in a whole, showing how we affect everyone and everything while everyone and everything affects us, no matter how small or fleeting the impact. The artist speaks about turn ll in the following video.
“My art is incomplete without the participants who interact with it. I wanted to make an interactive installation that is accessible to all, particularly people with visual impairments and those in wheelchairs. Part of the joy for me is that people don’t always follow the instructions. When people interact with my installations, there are fixers and rebels. Fixers try as hard as they can to follow my instructions. The rebels purposely don’t follow them and might do the exact opposite.” - Amy Stacey Curtis
During the planning stages for the artwork in the facility, Dr. Gwendolyn Sowa shared her vision for this reception area. She wanted artwork that would inspire social connections, play, and collaboration. In this photo, three people work together to turn the cubes.
The interactive sculpture, turn II, on the fourth level reception area form a grid of 700 custom made cubes. Each side of the cube is made of a different color with a raised shape. The red side has a raised circle, green an oval, yellow a square, purple a diamond, blue a triangle, orange a pentagon. This helps to make the piece more accessible to people with vision impairments.
The artist provides instructions at the top of the piece and on the adjacent sign, however, participants often adjust the installation in their own way. Throughout each day the patterns change as people interact, each combination destined to be rearranged.
To create the project, the artist assembled the cubes in her studio in Maine. She hired Technique Architectural Products to fabricate and install the aluminum structure to hold the cubes in the wall.
Amy spent an entire day activating the artwork by adding in the cubes.
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