NEXUS
SUSPENDED STAR INSTALLATION
Social Art | Light Effects | Outdoor Installation | Fiber Optics | Multidisciplinary Collaboration
Why is it so rare for us to find common ground? I created Nexus, a star suspended 3 stories above a central university courtyard that gives all of its viewers the same shared experience, regardless of their literal and figurative points of view. It was built on the idea that even with our differences, we're all human. And we share the core qualities that make us human. My on-going project goal is to bring as many people of different backgrounds and perspectives together as possible in a meaningful way.
SUMMARY
Nexus was created in 2016 for Personal Statements, an annual group exhibition with a long history within Stanford's graduate design program. The extremely open-ended prompt was for each student to create something that expressed his or her design point of view within a two-week time frame. As the last cohort to include both MS and MFA students and to participate in this special event altogether, we named the show "End of an Era".
The journey began as a blind sprint. I was given two weeks and a budget of $500 to represent my point of view as a designer. My mind was still reeling, however, from the 2016 presidential election that had just passed as well as the mixed emotions of being the last class before a major program transition. After several days of anxious deliberation, my thoughts came into focus. It wasn’t about me. It was about all of us and the common threads we share in a world struggling with empathy and acceptance. How could I create a shared moment with the same experience for all participants regardless of literal and figurative perspective? A point of light. One so delicate yet intense, and free of visual perspective, that it could inspire and connect anyone with an unobstructed view.
lighting exploration
My first step after deciding on the installation concept was to play with lighting strategies. These included light diffusing fiber, targetted lasers, and spherical LED lights.
installation diagram
The final installation design used a fiber optic strategy. It spans 250 feet (about 3/4 of a soccer field) across a courtyard, bounded by two buildings at 3 stories high. A 0.6 mm ultra-high strength Spectra line is anchored from one building to the opposite one with a turnbuckle, creating a high-tension, suspended support cable. Mounted on one of the buildings is a Bluetooth-connected white laser. Directly coupled to this laser module is a 0.9 mm optical transport fiber wound around the Spectra suspension line, with its emitting end positioned at the center point of the suspension line and courtyard below. Attached to the emitting end of the optical fiber is a 1/4-inch translucent glass bead, which acts as the final point of light.
INSTALLATION TESTING
Each functional aspect of the piece was tested before installation, like focusing the laser, tying knots that wouldn't slip, and transmitting light to a diffuser bead through a fiber.
FINDING COMMON GROUND
The next hurdle was execution. Fittingly, the project’s journey became an embodiment of its message. I reached out to dozens of contacts for support, and through this process, both strengthened existing relationships and developed lasting new ones in friends, collaborators, and mentors who went out of their way to offer their help. From a local fiber-optic startup founder who personally assisted me with custom orders, to the Director of the university’s LGBT community center providing access and encouragement to install my piece on their building—all it took was finding our common ground.
The technical execution of Nexus was inspired by impromptu collaborations with world-renown laser researchers who eagerly brainstormed with me. We developed the elegant strategy of coupling the optical fiber directly from a mounted laser source to the center of a suspended diffuser. With this strategy, I was able to create a delicate, yet robust installation with lossless optical performance.
aRCHITECTURAL VASCULAR SURGERY
To prevent the thin Spectra line from catching on roof tiles, it was sheathed in 0.25" PVC tubing before being pulled over the building. Threading the Spectra line through the full length of PVC tubing was especially tricky, requiring a tiny neodymium magnet attached to the end of the line, and a second magnet outside the tubing to pull the line all the way through. The entire process felt like performing vascular surgery on a building.
The visible portion of the line suspended above the courtyard was not sheathed in PVC tubing so it would remain as invisible as possible. This presented another challenge because a spool connected to the PVC-Spectra line had to be pulled over without catching on any roof tiles. To prevent the spool itself from catching, it was enclosed in a hollowed foam ball before being pulled over.
After anchoring one end of the suspension line, the 0.9 mm optical fiber was tightly wrapped around that line. One end of the fiber was connected to a controllable RGB laser, which transmitted light directly to a translucent glass bead at the exiting end of the fiber.
snags
While suspending and positioning the tension line, the spool dropped and became impossibly tangled. Fortunately, I designed for accidents like this by initially threading two independent lines through the PVC tubing. When one became tangled, I cut it off and only used the second.
At one point, the remnants of the tangled line also became caught on roof tiles and prevented the installation from being pulled completely straight, so I threw together a quick cutting tool and attached it to the end of a 10-foot PVC pipe that could be used with one hand while standing on a ladder to carefully cut the line 3 stories above the ground.
making a star
A compilation of video clips during the process of this project was put together as documentation.
EXHIBITION RECEPTION
On the night of the event, each student gave an introduction to their piece for the audience of faculty, alumni, family, and friends.
FINAL INSTALLATION
Nexus has created countless connections between students, faculty, and visitors. Moving forward, this project is undergoing public art proposals to scale and replicate it in other public gathering areas. The final goal is to install stars in major city centers nationally and internationally to establish global symbols of unity.
key learnings
Set constraints to address ambiguity—with such an open-ended prompt, I needed to make strong creative decisions that were neither right or wrong but a way to move forward. At the same time, I needed to be flexible in that ambiguity for my initial direction to require shifting as I learned more and tested my concepts.
Find and learn from experts—once I decided to dive into lasers as a way to execute my design intent, I needed to immediately connect with experts in the field to problem solve and focus my energy. Luckily, there were local resources to collaborate with in order to make the project a mutual success.
Incorporate redundancy as a safety net—the most critical part of this project was suspending a string between two buildings without tangling. Thankfully, I suspended two different lines in case one of them tangled (which it did).