Yakuza Lou
Eddy Sykes
October 11th - March 18th.
Eddy Sykes' Yakuza Lou was a site-specific installation that uses the relationship between the natural and mechanical notions of landscape, to create a unique garden with pushing and folding topographic surfaces and a robot cloud that floats overhead which created a volume in constant pseudo-natural flux.
A fusion of natural and man-made elements into a carefully thought-out practical application which allowed viewers to re-evaluate advanced systems of design.
This multi-system consisted of a self-articulating, undulating landscape that utilizes hydrodynamics, motors, and growth patterns to constantly redefine a system of octagonal vegetative mats. Aided by a hinge-mounted motor, each octagonal palette expanded and contracted much like an origami, fortune-telling toy. The opened shape became a beautiful three-dimensional grass floret was a unique paint scheme partially inspired by World War 2 confusion camouflage. The landscape coexisted with an artificial Cumulonimbus cloud, which hovered overhead and transformed over time.
Artist
Eddy Sykes is the principal of ChersonProm-- a multidisciplinary 3D design firm that specializes in the development and manufacture of kinetic architectural systems. Mr. Sykes is a sculptor and architectural designer. His career has engaged him in a wide spectrum of esoteric engineering activities-- ranging from kinetic architectural systems for high-speed rail in China, to consultation work on blast-rated doors, and his current endeavors in experimental architecture.
To accompany Yakuza Lou, Dorsey Dunn built a reactive, evolving sound field which was keyed to the movements of the "garden".
Embedded Within
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Crew
This installation was built by Eddy Sykes and volunteers like: Nick Blake, Rob Kelbley, Dave O'Brien, Nate Hess, Brian Janeczko, Lindsey Mysse, Peri Shefik, Andrew Lyon, Beverly Tang, Astrid Diehl, Joanne Bloomfield, Glen Kinoshita, Jennifer Fiedler, Libby Cookie, Dennis Dollens, Ramses Sorrell, Linda Graveline, Lilly Sparks, Tony Hudgins, Adam Wolf, Max Guirana, Blair Ellis, Christine Eyre, Deana Justkys, Gaston Nogues, Dianne Wright, Chris Crotty, Howard Chiang, Julian Gilbert-Davis, Tim Rossi, Jeremy King, Beebo Tse, Becky, Thong Nguyen, Gabe Olson, Jessica Fleishman, Kelly Schmoker, Oliver Hess and Jenna Didier.
Inputs
Yakuza Lou emerges from the cracks of two tectonic plates, all too gradually grinding their matter together. T he principals of ecological design and robotic architecture merge into a mechanical self sustaining system becoming a more believable concept through experimental progress. With less landscape there is more need for efficiency, and more need to steward what little landscape we are trying to protect and develop for it's cultural value. Like an impractical island or a precious jewel Yakuza Lou's twitching transformations and alien gesticulations remind us where all this could be going. Further evidence: Big Dog, a very real military machine who's very functional animation seems almost too strange to be believable, until these things are wandering down your street keeping the peace.
Sponsors
Yakuza Lou is sponsored by:
