Luminous Waveforms Unveiled at The Colorado School of Mines CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering

Luminous Waveforms Unveiled at The Colorado School of Mines CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering

Artists David Cole and Michael Brown unveiled the art installation, Luminous Waveforms, at the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering (CoorsTek Center) at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo. The Luminous Waveforms project is part of Colorado’s public art statute where an allocation of 1% of capital construction funds for new or renovated state buildings are set aside for the acquisition of works of art, the process of which is administered by Colorado Creative Industries.

In attendance were all stakeholders involved in bringing this art installation to life, including the CoorsTek Co-CEOs Michael Coors and Timothy Coors, and Chief Technology Officer Randel Mercer.

This two-year project began as a call for artists, where interested parties were given a description of the building, plus the stipulation that the art piece would include ceramic materials manufactured by CoorsTek. Four finalists were chosen to visit the CoorsTek Center, meet with the project committee, and tour two CoorsTek manufacturing facilities to gain a greater understanding of the medium they were required to use.

David Cole and Michael Brown were chosen and began their journey of creating Luminous Waveforms – a hanging sculpture comprised of 240 specially designed aluminum oxide ceramic tiles manufactured by CoorsTek. The material was chosen because its translucency allowed LEDs to illuminate each tile from behind. The mechanical movement of the tiles and the patterns displayed by the LEDs are inspired by the laws of physics and activated by the movement of the students below the artwork. This piece is entirely original and almost everything was fabricated from scratch.

“Michael and I are both fascinated by industry and science, and felt particularly engaged by this opportunity,” said David Cole, co-artist of Luminous Waveforms. “It was on a tour of a CoorsTek facility that we found a beautiful cylinder made of very pure alumina. When we shone a light through the material, the whole object glowed, and the seed of our idea was formed.”

To learn more about Luminous Waveforms and how CoorsTek was involved, check out this video: https://lnkd.in/eieWB-2