Project Details
We worked with Weill Cornell Medicine and Hirsch&Mann to develop a wall-sized digital artwork created from thousands of tiny screens and lenses as part of the $650m Belfer Research Building redevelopment. The shimmering and animated foyer installation celebrates the centre’s research work.
Client
Weill Cornell Medecine
Location
New York City, USA
Collaborators
Ennead, Hirsch&Mann
The Brief
‘Create a digital artwork for the foyer of Weill Cornell Medicine.’
Our Response
We worked with Hirsch&Mann to create a large-scale digital installation, comprised of 2800 mini-screens set in a grid pattern behind a panel of thousands of circular acrylic discs – a reference to the lenses used in medical research. The dual-layer construction makes it possible to read the wall from a distance as a single image, and then, up close, each screen has information about medical discoveries and other news from WCM’s website. The installation is programmed so that images and stories change constantly.
To bring the concept to life, every aspect of the hardware was designed from scratch. The project has won the CODAworx design award for best educational installation and was a Media Architecture Biennale future prototypes award finalist. Sustainability is at the heart of the design with power consumption totalling less than 1kw.
The project team comprised Squint/Opera, which provided the creative direction and project management, Hirsch&Mann which led the technology design, production and delivery, and The Cross Kings who led the physical detail design. Fabrication in Boston was completed by Design Communications Limited. The team also worked closely with the building’s designer, New-York-based Ennead Architects.
