PHILIP BEESLEY PROJECTS

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1 PHILIP BEESLEY PROJECTS

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3 PHILIP BEESLEY PROJECTS Philip Beesley creates immersive sculptural work, wall relief panels, fine photographs and drawings. His sculptures include permanent environments and canopies. Beesley leads the Living Architecture Systems Group including artists, scientists, and engineers in Canada, USA and Europe at forefronts of complex-systems research. His collaborative sculptures are crafted through next-generation digital fabrication, employing designs rooted in qualities of efflorescence, diffusion and organicism. Interlinked skeletal forms amass to make densely embroidered surfaces saturated with emotionally charged details, pushing and pulling. Intricately detailed digital drawings and panoramic photography creates visions of possibility that accompany full-scale sculpture. In addition to still sculptural work, recent installations have integrated interactive electronics, sound, light and synthetic biology. These works evoke new kinds of responsive space, raising fundamental questions about boundaries of nature and technology. Large-scale works open to the public include Hylozoic Veil, The Leonardo Museum, Salt Lake City; and Aurora, Simons, West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton. His ongoing collaboration with fashion designer Iris van Herpen has been widely covered in global press. Beesley s works feature archival materials including glass, stainless steel, aluminum, and architecture-grade acrylic, with meticulous engineering and fine crafting. Kinetic components are configured as renewable modules permitting low-maintenance renewals.

4 SCULPTURAL TAPESTRIES Work in Progress, 2016 Series Format: 1.2m x 1.8m x 0.2m Borosilicate glass, acrylic, abs, mylar, silicon Wall mounted sculpture reliefs integrate thermally expanded hyperbolic cells made from stainless steel and laser-cut acrylic, warped into intersecting tripods that link together into a hybrid diagrid space-truss field. Responsive light and sound are integrated within electronically active versions of these panels. Distributed responsive sound is emitted through 3d printed transparent transducers in wall-coupled horns. Proximity sensors are tied to a meshwork of microprocessors, providing delicate rippling choruses of synthetic whispers that respond to viewer gestures, accompanied by softly glowing LEDs that provide reflex responses. Detail of interlinking scaffold with sound electronics Sculptural Tapestry 1, 2016

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6 Elevation Sculptural Tapestry 1, 2016

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9 Detail Sculptural Tapestry 2, 2016

10 Elevation Sculptural Tapestry 2, 2016

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13 Detail Sculptural Tapestry 3, 2016

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15 Elevation Sculptural Tapestry 3, 2016

16 HYLOZOIC GROUND Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2010 Philip Beesley worked with a collaborative team of designers, scientists and engineers to present Hylozoic Ground, Canada s entry to the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. Hylozoic Ground was an immersive interactive environment that proposed a vision for a possible future architecture. Within the sculpture, tens of thousands of lightweight digitallyfabricated components were fitted with microprocessors and proximity sensors that reacted to human presence. The responsive environment functioned like a giant lung, breathing in and around its viewers. Prototype chemical cells housed in masses of glass flasks showed slow reactions, translating carbon dioxide from the environment into harmless deposits akin to limestone and chalk. Arrays of touch sensors and shape-memory alloy actuator created waves of empathic motion, luring visitors into the artificial forest environment. Hylozoic Ground, Venice Architecture Biennale, 2010

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18 SARGASSO Luminato Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2011 Commissioned by the Luminato festival, Sargasso refers to the vast, tangled floating masses of living matter and cast-off material that drifts at the centre of the Atlantic. The environment within the sweeping atrium of the Santiago Calatrava s Allen Lambert Galleria made a canopy that slowly shifted and floated above the city. The canopy formed a forest-like hovering field, kin to primitive life-forms within dense jungles and ocean reefs. The outer canopy was formed by a hexagonal meshwork of acrylic and mylar fronds that stretched east and west into the heights of the public hall. This surface met the ground at the centre of the installation. The sloping and curving membrane framed a pool of space that functioned as an open room for public gathering. An inner canopy was suspended over this central area, containing an aerial grotto of kinetic vesicles and glass. Sargasso, Luminato Festival, 2011

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20 HYLOZOIC VEIL The Leonardo Museum, Salt Lake City, USA, 2011 Hylozoic Veil opened to the public October 2011 as part of the inauguration of The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. The work spans three stories and is made of hundreds of thousands of lightweight digitally fabricated components fitted with microprocessors and sensors. Alongside mechanized component systems, a liquid system has been introduced into the environment, supporting simple chemical exchanges that share some of the properties of living organisms. This system is based on protocells, prototype cells that use inorganic ingredients combined in cell-like forms. Hylozoic Veil, The Leonardo, 2011

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22 HYLOZOIC SOIL Festival de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, 2010 Hylozoic Soil: Alameda Field was a 2010 interactive installation exhibited in Mexico City on the occasion of FMX10, the tenth Festival de Mexico. The piece was installed within the Laboratorio Arte Alameda, a contemporary art space dedicated to electronic and interactive media art. The sculpture was suspended within the vaults of the Laboratorio s historic site, a sixteenthcentury colonial church that originally housed the Spanish Inquisition. The piece received an audience of 250,000 visitors over its six week exhibition. Hylozoic Soil, Festival de Mexico, 2010

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24 AURORA Simons, Edmonton, Canada, 2013 Simons commissioned Philip Beesley to create a major installation for the interior of their new 115,000 square foot West Edmonton Mall location. Aurora takes its inspiration from the aurora borealis, with its natural plays of light and dance of elements dependent on chance interactions and energetic collisions. The sculpture is composed of hundreds of thousands of individual components including laser-cut stainless steel, acrylic and mylar, densely massed glass vessels, and custom computer-controlled circuitry. Aurora creates an ethereal overhead canopy designed to gently swell and ripple in an ocean of intelligent LED lights that responds to viewers gathering below. Detail view, Aurora, Simons, 2013

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26 EPIPHYTE SPRING Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Hangzhou, China, 2013 Epiphyte Spring rests in the stone-lined atrium of the Zhejiang Museum in China s ancient garden city, Hangzhou. The suspended sculpture is formed in ghost-like crystalline veils following hovering diagrids and thermally expanded meshworks. Networks of interconnected microprocessors and sensors allow viewers to be tracked, offering small increments of gentle muscular movements that register the presence of viewers. Epiphyte Spring, Hangzhou Triennial, 2013

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28 EPIPHYTE CHAMBER Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, 2013 Opened to the public as part of the inaugural Aleph Exhibition at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Epiphyte Chamber is envisioned as an archipelago of inter-connected halo-like masses that mimic human sensations through subtle, coordinated movements. The work is conceived as an epiphyte, an aerial plant species that can grow without the support of soil. Across each floating island, densely interwoven structures and delicate canopies intersect. The hovering textile-like fabric that frames this floating sculpture is lined with masses of fluidfilled vessels and glands that contain simple metabolisms with chemicals moving through slow reactions. Interlinking clouds of biomimetic components are drawn together in waves of breathing and whispers. Audiences walk into highly intimate sculptural spaces that support small clusters of activity interlinking into larger gathering areas. The resulting environment acts as a primitive social architecture, offering viewers an exploration of personal spaces. Beesley toured the President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, through the work. Her widely reported comments named the interdisciplinary work as a model for how contemporary Korean culture could grow. Epiphyte Chamber, MMCA, 2013

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30 SENTIENT CHAMBER National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., USA, 2015 Sentient Chamber stands as the entry installation to the main auditorium of the National Academy of Sciences, the historic centre located on the Washington Mall dedicated to scientific research and advice to the United States government. Nested clusters of sensors and mechanisms throughout the environment are programmed with algorithms that mimic curiosity. Audiences are tracked by arrays of proximitydetecting sensors, providing constantly-changing feedback to the networks of microprocessors within the system. An innovative structure composed of thermally expanded acrylic and mechanically expanded stainless steel supports the freestanding pavilion. The structure is organized in hexagonal meshwork spars are bundled in clusters that make a highly efficient three-dimensional truss system. Structural axonometric drawing Sentient Chamber, National Academy of Sciences, 2015

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33 Detail of canopy structure Sentient Chamber, National Academy of Sciences, 2015

34 CREDITS The Hylozoic Series was made possible through the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Waterloo Architecture. We acknowledge the invaluable support of multiple partners and many hundreds of volunteers around the world who have donated their time in the fabrication, production and installation of the Hylozoic Series. Collaborators Rachel Armstrong Philippe Baylaucq Salvador Breed Christian Derix Rob Gorbet Martin Hanczyc Mark-David Hosale Dana Kulic Alan Macy Chantelle Niblock Anne Paxton Lucinda Presley Rolf Seifert Michael Stacey Iris van Herpen PBAI Anne Alma Andre Arseneault Sue Balint Scott Barker Nadine Beaulieu Chris Black David Blackmore Petra Bogias Matt Borland Clementine Bory Teresa Branch-Smith Liana Bresler Eric Bury Carlos Carrillo Duran Chloe Catan Matthew Chan Qi Chen Martin Correa Jon Cummings Jordan Darnell Vikrant Dasoar Aaron Davis-Rotman Brandon Dehart Laura Di Fiore Marc Downing Andrew Edmundson Susanne Eeg William Elsworthy Miguel Enkerlin Poet Farrell Ryan Ferko Zachary Fluker Michael Formusa Jonathan Friedman Will Fu Jonathan Gammell Pedro Garcia Stephane Gaulin-Brown Brie Gillespie Jonathan Gotfryd Diana Green Daniel Hall Alex Harbour Sascha Hastings Andre Hladio Miriam Ho Ian Hoffman Jonah Humphrey Deidra Hunter Tsenye Ing Hayley Isaacs Steven Ischkin Dieter Jannsen Melana Janzen Christian Joakim Mon Josef Alex Josephson David Kadish Coryn Kempster Thomas-Bernard Kenniff Andrew Kmiecik Liav Koren Katherine Kovalcik Manuel Kretzer Mathilde Kroll-Rabotin Faisal Kubba Luanna Lam Jonathan Lau Jayden Lee Andrea Ling Alex Lukachko Michaela Macleod Galen MacLuskey Todd Macyk Lia Maston Mo Memarian Deborah Mesher Nikola Miloradovic Salvador Miranda Kunaal Mohan Elena Moliotsias Clara Montgomery Leonor Munoz Ioana Muresanu Julia Nakanishi Elie Nehme Farid Noufaily Thomas Noussis Connor O Grady Michael O Hara Pernilla Ohrstedt Julia Padvoiskis Carlo Pasini Eva Pianezzola Federica Pianta Paula Popa Jordan Prosser Simeon Rivier Kirsten Robinson Jonathan Ronzani Natalie Schelew Matt Schmid Adam Schwartzentruber Anne Sewell Sheida Shahi Amir Shahrokhi Desmond Shum Tomasz Smereka BJ Smith Scott Sorli Patrick Svilans Siobhan Sweeny Golzar Taravati Kristie Taylor Siubhan Taylor Tania Thompson Andreea Toca Jonathan Tyrrell Michelle Van Eyk Elisabeth van Overbeeke Yoshikatsu Wachi Darcie Watson Alex Willms Jane Wong May Wu Erica Yudelman Mike Zheh Mingyi Zhou Karen Zwart-Hielema Mark Zwicker

35 PHILIP BEESLEY Philip Beesley is a practicing visual artist, architect, and Professor in Architecture at the University of Waterloo and Professor of Digital Design and Architecture & Urbanism at the European Graduate School. Beesley s work is widely cited in contemporary art and architecture, focused in the rapidly expanding technology and culture of responsive and interactive systems. Beesley was educated in visual art at Queen s University, in technology at Humber College, and in architecture at the University of Toronto. He serves as the Director for the Living Architecture Systems Group, and as Director for Riverside Architectural Press. His Toronto-based practice, Philip Beesley Architect Inc. operates in partnership with the Europe-based practice Pucher Seifert and the Waterloo-based Adaptive Systems Group, Beesley s work was selected to represent Canada at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, and has received distinctions including the Prix de Rome, VIDA 11.0, FEIDAD, Azure AZ, and Architizer A+.

36 Contact: Salvador Miranda Development & Communications Manager (416) Philip Beesley 213 Sterling Road Suite 200, Toronto, ON M6R 2B2