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From YouTube: Cliff Garten Artist Talk on "Gravity and Grace"
Description
Artist/Designer Cliff Garten discusses "Gravity and Grace", a site-specific large-scale, 150-foot long LED public artwork integrated into the architecture of JBG SMITH's new Central Place Plaza in Arlington Virginia.
A
A
Originally,
we
wanted
to
string
sculptures
that
were
24
feet
tall
at
the
intersections
of
every
Street,
going
down,
Northland
all
the
way
from
the
Esplanade
to
Iwo
Jima,
but
there
were
so
many
difficulties
technically
with
underground
issues
that
you
know,
we
decided
to
take
another
approach,
the
Esplanade
it
will
be,
it
will
appear
in
two
years.
Hopefully
in
another
five
or
six
years,
the
meed
Street
Bridge
will
appear,
and
then
you'll
have
this
piece.
So
you'll
have
this
kind
of
continuous
lighting
effect
going
downwind
Street.
A
Although
I
do
do
studio,
work,
I,
don't
just
make
the
work
in
my
studio,
the
work
is
usually
a
large
process
that
goes
on
amongst
a
team,
and
that
team
includes
landscape,
architects,
engineers,
architects,
depending
on
the
work.
In
this
case
it
might
include
lighting
consultants,
digital
programmers.
A
You
know
it
just
varies.
What
what
I
do
is
I
really
address
the
context
of
the
situation.
If
the
art
is
successful,
it
will
in
some
way
clarify
the
life
that
it
accommodates
in
the
city
and
I
find
that
accommodation
a
very
interesting
part
of
being
able
to
make
art
in
the
public
realm.
As
you
know,
as
I
say,
this
is
a
this
project
isn't
going
on
for
10
years,
and
you
know
it
was
changing
all
the
time.
A
A
That
comes
out
of
context,
so
we
found
that
it
would
be
a
great
way
to
continue
this
concept
of
light
down
the
corridor
of
light
now
I
had
never
I'd
worked
with
a
lot
with
light,
so
yeah
I
I
have
worked
with
light,
but
I'm
always
illuminating
my
sculptures,
but
the
idea
of
having
this
big
flat
wall,
which
is
basically
like
a
painterly
space,
I,
think
really,
you
know,
threw
me
in
the
beginning:
I
saw
it
as
a
as
a
real
challenge.
Like
could
I
do
this.
You
know
what
would
I
do.
A
Pablo
has
been
like
really
incredible
at
you
know,
teaching
me
this
new
medium
and
you
know
giving
me
the
ins
and
outs
of
it
because
it
has
been
for
me
a
pretty
steep
learning
curve.
What
I
knew
when
I
started
was
I.
You
know
I'm
I'm,
not
a
painter,
but
I
believe
that
I'm
very
interested
in
color
and
I'm.
A
pretty
good,
colorist
and
I
knew
that
that
was
the
approach
that
I
wanted
to
take.
But
switching
over
from
corporal
color
and
painting
to
spectral
color
in
light
is
it's
a
whole
different
thing.
A
I
mean
like
you
could
hear
me
and
Pablo
every
night
Pablo
make
it
more
red.
I
can't
add
red.
It's
all
red
I
have
to
take
blue
out
because
there's
only
three
colors
right,
red,
green
and
blue:
it's
not
the
primaries,
the
other
primaries,
incorporeal,
color,
red,
yellow
and
blue.
So
everything
is
a
little
bit
backwards.
A
You
know
these
domes
and
just
being
blown
away
by
this
orange
and
blue
glass
and
you'll
see
a
lot
of
that
orange
and
blue.
Going
on
in
this
piece.
That's
Ravenna,
but
I
also
understood
that
I
could
really
at
a
certain
point.
We
had
to
give
up
all
our
ideas
about
any
kind
of
physical
imagery.
We
you
know
we
thought
about
people
dancing
and
the
the
pixel
pitch
or
what
you
know
what
we
call
the
number
of
pixels
that
define
the
image.
A
Was
you
know
not
great
enough
to
define
you
know
silhouettes
very
well,
so
then
I
started
to
you
know
really
think
when
Pablo
and
I
started
to
work
on
the
screen,
because
this
was
imaged,
digitally
the
whole
building
and
then
Pablo
was
able
to.
You
know,
lay
his
patterns
on
there
when
I
started
to
look
at
that.
I
realized.
Oh,
my
god.
A
This
thing
is
a
hundred
fifty
feet
long
and
it's
only
15
feet
high
it's
ten
times
as
long
as
it
is
high
like
what
do
you
do
with
that
space,
plus
it's
divided
into
a
grid
in
a
really
particular
way
right,
so
I
was,
like
god,
I
better
start
paying
attention
to
this.
If
I'm
gonna
make
this
work
right,
and
that
was
that
was
a
real
turning
point
and
then
going
to
Las,
Vegas
and
being
able
to
work
with
the
team.
A
Pablo
also
has
two
other
programmers.
We
call
them
the
twins.
A
Both
their
names
are
Jesse
and
the
both
their
last
names
start
with
G,
so
they're
the
Jesse
twins,
but
they're.
You
know
and
like
when,
when
we're
done
here
at
like
2:00
a.m.
every
night,
Pablo's
pacing,
the
plaza
talking
to
the
Jesse's,
trying
to
work
all
the
bugs
out
of
the
program,
I
mean
I,
can't
tell
you
how
complicated
this
is.
There
are
so
many
layers
to
something
like
this.
A
It's
like
what
you
see
the
aesthetics
of
it
is
it's
that's
really
the
surface
and
all
this
other,
the
digital
guts
underneath
it
that
Pablo
and
the
team
worked
out
is
what
really
supports
it,
and
that
has
a
particular
language.
And
so
we
were
like
a
married
couple.
You
know
it
was
like
it's
not
a
transition,
it's
a
fade
when
you
use
the
right
language,
you
know
so
I
was
like
okay.
A
After
three
nights,
I
was
like
Pablo
I'm
gonna
learn
the
language;
okay,
just
relax
yeah,
but
so
it
was
written
really
interesting
in
it
and
I've
learned
so
much
and
I'm
so
happy
with
the
result.
You
know
what
you're
gonna
see.
Are
these
big
fields
of
geometry,
like
the
one
you
see
now
what's
happening
in
these
big
fields
of
geometry?
Is
that
we're
using
very
intense,
complementary
and
contrasting
colors
to
frame
one
rectangle
and
then
what
happens
as
you
move
across
one?
A
A
They
happen
over
about
a
minute,
but
during
the
regular
show
that
that
time
gets
extended
because
there's
another
layer
of
this
besides
just
coming
up
with
these
geometries
and
that's
then
putting
all
of
that
into
a
show,
and
that's
also
where
norm
has
been
very
supportive
and
Pablo
is
because
they
understand
how
to
extend
the
media
across
time.
Like
that,
all
right,
and
if
we
talk
about
you,
know
being
in
public
and
making
something,
that's
back
rounding
public
activity,
that's
what
we're
really
doing
with
the
piece
okay.
So
how
does
the
piece
work?
A
There's
there's
there's
this
whole
idea,
aesthetic
idea
about
the
geometry
that
addresses
the
architecture
and
the
grid
of
the
building
that
is
referenced
in
you
know.
Color
field,
painting,
minimalist
painting
and
just
color
and
color
theory
in
general,
but
then
there's
a
whole
other
subset
of
data
which
we're
going
to
use
to
drive
the
changes
in
those
geometries,
and
that
data
is
climate.
It's
tides,
its
air
quality.
What
else
are
we
using
transit
and
traffic?
A
All
of
these
environmental
factors
that
we
see
around
us
in
the
city
are
real-time
data
feeds
that
Pablo
is
going
to.
You
know,
translate
and
network
to
the
piece
so
that
that
data
is
driving
the
piece
now
you
might
say.
Well
how
will
anybody
know
that?
Well,
unless
you
come
to
this
talk
or
read
it,
you
know
you're
not
going
to
know
that,
but
many
of
my
pieces
when
I
think
about
it.
Many
of
my
pieces
operate
that
way
like
I'll.
A
Take
four
for
a
bridge
that
goes
to
a
Nature
Conservancy
that
goes
over
a
highway.
I'll
find
this
little
lizard
in
coastal
sedge,
ecology
in
the
Nature
Conservancy
and
we'll
blow
the
pattern
from
the
lizard
up,
really
big
and
then
cut
it
through
the
bridge.
No
one
knows
that,
but
there's
something
about
that
that
you
know
makes
it
fit
so
I
think
it's
a
real,
interesting
idea
that
the
piece
is
a
Lea
Tori.
A
It's
really
based
on
chance,
which
is
a
you
know,
an
old
idea
by
now
in
modern
art
that
John
Cage
Merce
Cunningham
lots
of
artists
work
with
chance,
so
we're
kind
of
throwing
the
dice
to
do
that.
It's
going
to
be
real
interesting
for
me
to
see
the
show
when
it's
running
on
real
time,
because
the
the
show
the
30
minute
show
that
you're
going
to
see
now
is
just
a
result
of
my
decisions,
my
aesthetic
decisions,
and
so
it's
all
kind
of
curated
by
me.