YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION
Category: Art Installation
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Size: ø 0.78 m × 0.15 m (W)
Material: K-02 optical glass spheres, CNC cut aluminum, mirror stainless steel
Year: 2025
An insect like compound eye returns the viewers gaze.
"Manifest in diminishing spheres of glass toward a center along a distinct, familiar pattern, each sphere is backed by a reflective plane—allowing recursive reflections of all 478 glass elements to reverberate within one another.
The recognisable pattern is a reminder of our inherent organic origins yet its materiality is a condition of the industrial complexes we find our selves within. The artifact itself created with unyielding precision by CNC machines of aerospace 6061 aluminium with spheres of K9 Optical glass ranging 55mm dia to 2mm dia chemically bonded to the Aluminum yet placed there by the frailties of human touch.
The spheres are arrayed in a flat phyllotaxis pattern, A pattern present in many forms of nature (like sunflower seeds or pinecone scales). The visual appeal can be described with mathematical elegance using the Golden Ratio φ Angle (θ): θ = n × 137.508° whereby The formula computes polar coordinates using the Golden Angle (≈ 137.5°) to evenly distribute points in a spiral. The phenomenon of spiral phyllotaxis patterns is remarkable in that the index of visible spirals or helices coincides with Fibonacci numbers; a recursive sequence of equal elegance 1,1,2,3,5,8,13… the maths is the bridge in this case, between the execution of the machine, organic execution.
In essence a tension arises. a memento mori or perhaps a Memento Natura - a reminder of our natural origins amid or ever-industrialised present. yet rendered in discrete maths, administered by machines with unyielding precision. the tension between nature and the machine persists.
