Marek Walczak worked at James Carpenter Design Assoc. until 2001. He was the designer for the Periscope Window and the Light Screen and co-designed several other projects. Since then he has worked with JCDA on 7 World Trade Center, the Jewish Museum of Heritage and other projects, adding interactive design elements to their work.

An Archive of Memory

2007

Cooper Hewitt This site specific artwork at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s 2006 Design Triennial is situated in front of a window facing the garden. It explores the reciprocal relationship between garden and interior, by reinterpreting the idea of window as a luminous and temporal information threshold.

Once a day a camera adjacent to the main entrance to the garden, records a 30 second film segment of the tree canopy along the back edge of the garden. This cumulative sequence is stored in a computer and played back on the 6ft x 3ft plane of Light Emitting Diode circuit boards. A larger 9ft x 5ft acid etched plane placed between the viewer and the LEDs resolves the pixilated abstractions presented by the LEDs. Meanwhile the compressed nature of the sequence reveals the temporal nature of the garden as it is transformed by the seasons.

7WTC Screenwall

2006

7 WTCThe Podium Light Wall is located on the South and North facades of 7 World Trade Center. As people wander on the pavement below a strip of blue light gracefully follows them. This strip of blue light is 7 floors tall and is visible from Freedom Park. The Podium Wall accentuates the individual, and the patterns that are created as many pass by together. Kinecity designed the interactive element of the design for James Carpenter Design Assoc. who were the responsible for the wall as an art piece.

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Shimmer Wall

2006

JMHThe Shimmer Wall is located in the link between the two buildings of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. A place of contemplation designed by James Carpenter Design Associates, the wall projects the subtle shimmering light as the sun plays with the Hudson River.

Kinecity have designed the camera recognition system that recognizes the shimmer on the water. Moving and zooming throughout the day on a very slow orbit, the artificial intelligence system tracks the beauty of light reflecting off water, through which on occasion a ferry or yacht passes by.

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Light Threshold

2000

Light ThresholdThe Light Threshold was designed as a gateway to the Olympic Complex in Sydney, Australia. The work is a threshold of light that perpendicularly crosses the northern entry road/bridge to the park.

Five masts establishes a vertical plane that cuts across the access roadway in an open landscape. At the top of each mast is a 3m high stainless steel assembly with a series of nozzles that disperse a fine cloud of mist into the air.

This drifting cloud of mist is animated by reflecting a yellow/gold stream of sunlight through its center off of a system of mirrors. The mirror system, gimbaled atop a sixth mast, is controlled by a heliostat computer programmed to follow the sun’s path. More…

Sculptural Light Screen

2000

lightscreenThe Sculptural Light Screen is on the west front of the new atrium for the Austin Convention Center. It serves a number of functions. Made up of Photovoltaic panels that converts sunlight into electricity, it acts to screen the western sun from the Atrium, and so makes up part of the sustainable energy concept for the new building. The Light Screen is made up of both photovoltaic louvers and colored glass louvers. As the sun hits the wall, it modulates and refracts the light that projects onto the translucent curtain wall behind, creating a mosaic like wall as viewed from the escalator inside. For James Carpenter Design, 2000.

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Periscope Window

1997

Periscope WindowThe Periscope Window is an optical device located in the stairway of a residence in Minneapolis which redirects views of the exterior onto a diffused glass screen. The window aperture faces the property line and a fence at eye level, with views of a tree and the sky above and beyond. The goal was to multiply views of the tree and sky while obscuring any direct views into the house.

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