From isolated voices to a shared axis...
Axis Mundi: Resonant Spire is a large-scale architectural installation conceived as a contemporary ritual instrument. The project reinterprets the ancient idea of the axis mundi as a living system that connects human presence, collective memory, and time through architecture, sound, and light. The installation treats voice as an architectural material. Participants engage through voice, silence, proximity, or listening. These inputs are captured, filtered, and processed through a hybrid system of sound sensing, computation, and projection. Rather than amplifying individual gestures, the system translates them into a shared audiovisual pattern that travels vertically through the structure, forming a collective imprint of presence over time. Developed through research in hybrid architecture and in collaboration with Columbia University GSAPP Maker Space, the project bridges academic investigation, experimental fabrication, and large-scale public art. Its open, skeletal wooden structure emphasizes tension, permeability, and resonance rather than mass, allowing environmental forces and human interaction to shape the experience. Within Black Rock City, the Spire functions both as a distant beacon and an intimate gathering point at ground level. Whether or not a final burn occurs, the work is conceived as complete through participation itself — proposing architecture not as a static object, but as a process that transforms shared human experience into structure, memory, and meaning.
Ritual & Time
The work draws from ancient ritual practices where resonance and echo connected bodies across space and generations. Here, that logic is translated into a contemporary context: technology acts as a mediator rather than a spectacle. Over time, the installation becomes a temporal archive, recording the presence of those who pass through it as an evolving pattern.
Core Idea
The project treats voice as architectural material. Participants engage through voice, silence, proximity, or listening. These inputs are captured, filtered, and processed — not amplified as noise, but transformed into a coherent audiovisual pattern that moves vertically through the structure. Individual gestures dissolve into a shared trace of collective presence.
Architecture & Research
Architecturally, the project emerges from ongoing research in hybrid architecture — exploring how physical structures can integrate digital processes and collective interaction. Developed in collaboration with Columbia University GSAPP Maker Space, the Spire bridges academic research, experimental fabrication, and large-scale public art. Its skeletal wooden structure emphasizes forces, tension, and permeability rather than mass.
Physical Description
The installation is a 10-meter-tall wooden vert structure composed of a central load-bearing mast and two lightweight side towers mounted on semi-circular brackets and connected to the mast.The structure is stabilized by tensioned guy wires arranged in two vertical levels and anchored in six directions, engineered for playa wind. By day, it reads as an open, skeletal construction. Ribbed wooden cones allow air, light, and sound to pass through, emphasizing the vertical axis.At the base, microphones and echo-capturing sensors register human voice and resonance.These signals are processed through a compact computational system and translated into data-driven light patterns.Projectors map the processed sound onto the structure, creating evolving vertical projections. By night, the tower becomes a luminous beacon where accumulated sound and light form a continuously changing visual and sonic pattern.All components are modular, removable, transportable, and fully Leave No Trace compliant.
Interactivity
Interactivity is central to the installation and unfolds naturally around its base. Participants approach the tower individually or in small groups and interact through voice, resonance, and presence. Microphones and echo-capturing sensors register sound input, which is processed in real time by a computational system. Rather than producing immediate noise, individual signals are accumulated, filtered, and transformed into a coherent audiovisual response. As more participants engage, their voices merge into a shared resonant track. This collective input activates projected light patterns that travel vertically along the structure, visualizing sound as a temporal axis. The installation does not demand specific behavior; visitors may speak, remain silent, listen, or simply observe how the presence of others shapes the evolving pattern. Over time, the tower records a unique imprint of the community gathered around it,a living archive of collective resonance expressed through light and sound
Philosophy
Axis Mundi: Resonant Spire is grounded in the idea that architecture can function not only as form, but as a mediator of collective experience. The project proposes an alternative understanding of access — not as permission or control, but as participation. Access emerges when individual presence becomes part of a shared structure. At the center of the work is the transformation of voice. In contemporary culture, voice is often amplified, fragmented, or lost in noise. Here, voice is neither performed nor broadcast. It is gathered, filtered, and translated into resonance — a process in which individual gestures dissolve into a coherent whole. What matters is not volume or dominance, but accumulation and coexistence. The project draws from ancient ritual practices in which sound, echo, and call connected people across space and generations. These practices are reinterpreted through contemporary tools: sensing, computation, and projection. Technology is not used to create spectacle, but to make an invisible process visible — the slow formation of collective memory. Architecturally, the Spire rejects mass and monumentality. Its open, skeletal structure emphasizes tension, permeability, and vertical continuity. The axis is not imposed; it is formed through interaction. Over time, the installation becomes a temporal structure — a record of presence shaped by those who pass through it. Ultimately, Axis Mundi: Resonant Spire proposes architecture as a process rather than an object. It asks how shared experience can be structured without hierarchy, how difference can coexist without erasure, and how a collective voice can emerge not as noise, but as resonance.
Funding
Project is structured around a mixed funding strategy that combines Honoraria support with independent fundraising and in-kind contributions. The remaining project costs will be covered through a combination of personal investment by the artist, material donations, shared fabrication resources, and community-based fundraising Fundraising efforts will focus on targeted outreach to individual supporters, collaborators, and academic and creative networks connected to the project. This includes small-scale direct donations, in-kind support such as access to tools, workshop space, and transportation assistance, as well as cost-sharing among the core build team. Digital fundraising platforms may be used selectively to support specific material or logistics needs. This diversified approach reduces reliance on any single funding source and ensures the project remains financially resilient, while preserving its integrity as a non-commercial, gift-based artwork aligned with BM principles
Estimated Total Budget: $58,000 Estimated Funding Request: $24,000
- Build Space
Total: $3,000 Requested: $1,500 Outside: $1,500 Temporary workshop access, shared fabrication space, short-term storage.
- Structural Materials
Total: $14,500 Requested: $7,000 Outside: $7,500 Lumber, plywood ribs, laminated mast elements, structural wood, waste factor.
- Tools & Consumables
Total: $3,200 Requested: $1,500 Outside: $1,700 Drill bits, saw blades, fasteners wear, protective materials.
- Hardware
Total: $4,800 Requested: $2,200 Outside: $2,600 Guy wires, turnbuckles, anchors, rigging hardware, rated fasteners.
- Safety Materials
Total: $1,500 Requested: $800 Outside: $700 PPE, fire extinguishers, cones, delineators, signage.
- Leave No Trace Supplies
Total: $1,200 Requested: $600 Outside: $600 MOOP tools, tarps, containment, bags, magnet rake.
- Lighting / Electrical
Total: $8,500 Requested: $5,000 Outside: $3,500 Projectors (rental/partial purchase), cabling, enclosures, controllers.
- Power
Total: $4,500 Requested: $2,000 Outside: $2,500 Generator share, fuel, distribution, backup power.
- Sound
Total: $3,800 Requested: $2,000 Outside: $1,800 Microphones, sensors, audio interface, small speakers.
- Specialty Services & Fabrication
Total: $4,000 Requested: $1,800 Outside: $2,200 CNC cutting, specialist consultation, precision fabrication.
- Project Transportation
Total: $5,500 Requested: $1,600 Outside: $3,900 Truck rental, fuel, loading/unloading, playa logistics.
- Decor
Total: $1,800 Requested (BM): $800 Outside: $1,000 Minimal surface finishes Natural wood treatment Non-shedding elements integrated into structure
- Flame Effects / Pyro / Fire
Total: $1,500 Requested (BM): $0 Outside: $1,500 Burn-related preparation Fire safety materials Fire extinguishers, perimeter control
- Fundraising
Total: $1,200 Requested (BM): $0 Outside: $1,200 Fundraising platform fees Payment processing fees Fiscal sponsorship (if applicable)
- Swag
Total: $1,000 Requested (BM): $0 Outside: $1,000 Crew shirts / hoodies Safety identifiers Thank-you items for volunteers
Light, Echo & Sound System
In Axis Mundi: Resonant Spire, light, echo, and sound operate as a single architectural system rather than separate technical layers. The installation is conceived as a resonant instrument that senses, processes, and spatially translates human presence over time. At ground level, directional microphones and echo-capture elements register voice, breath, and ambient sound. These inputs are not amplified directly. Instead, they pass through a processing layer that filters intensity, duration, and rhythm, allowing individual expressions to dissolve into a shared signal. Silence and distance are registered alongside voice, giving equal weight to presence and absence. This processed signal drives the visual system. Projectors cast dynamic light patterns onto the wooden structure, mapping sound data as vertical movement, density, and rhythm. Light travels upward along the central mast and the ribbed cones, forming a visible trace of collective resonance rather than a literal translation of sound. The structure itself becomes the projection surface — a spatial register of accumulated interaction. Sound output remains restrained and localized. Subtle harmonic tones and low-frequency resonance emerge only within close proximity to the installation, reinforcing intimacy and preventing interference with surrounding artworks. The emphasis is not volume, but coherence: a continuous, evolving soundscape shaped by cumulative participation. Together, sensing, processing, projection, and sound form a closed feedback loop. Over time, the system records, compresses, and replays collective presence as a unified audiovisual pattern. The installation does not respond to individuals in isolation; it responds to the collective state. In this way, the Spire functions as a temporal instrument — one that listens, remembers, and slowly transforms human input into shared structure.
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Meta Concept "Vanilla City" and "Orbit 45"
Orbit-45 is an architectural threshold that blurs the line between illusion and authenticity to reinvent space exploration and humanity’s future. Orbit-45: The Eighth Continent project involves an orbital ring at the 45th parallel that symbolically connects the world’s major economic centers. Though seen from Earth as a luminous utopian city called Vanilla City, it is actually a projection of AI-generated illusions. Behind this facade lies the Eighth Continent, where people live, farm, and build together in an architecture of honesty and modesty. The Threshold, a zero-gravity zone of disorientation, exposes the illusions and opens the path to authentic experience. The project reimagines space exploration as a process of self-discovery and collective renewal rather than conquest.