Concept

The Science Museum of Virginia inspires hundreds of thousands of guests each year to enrich their lives through science. Many of the Museum’s exhibitions are interactive and act as a catalyst for inspiration, spark curiosity, encourage discovery and present ideas through the lens of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The proposal for this iconic exterior art installation is also interactive and presented through the lens of STEM.

Throughout his career as an artist, Gordon Huether has often drawn inspiration from the naturally occurring elements. The branching of trees, the spiral form of galaxies, and the architecture of a honeycomb offer beautiful patterns that lend themselves to aesthetically harmonious and balanced designs. These naturally occurring elements are also all examples of where the Fibonacci sequence appears in nature.

The Fibonacci sequence is a set of numbers that starts with a one or a zero, followed by a one, and proceeds based on the rule that each number is equal to the sum of the preceding two numbers. These numbers can be expressed in nature, such as the manner in which various plants grow, and are a way for information to flow in a very efficient and beautiful manner. Direct references to the Fibonacci Sequence, and the Golden Spiral, can be found in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as nature, architecture, art, music and geometry.

The proposed artwork, Fibonacci’s Light, references the Fibonacci sequence and Golden Spiral in its coiled form, proposed materials, and proposed methods of fabrication. It marries nature to engineering, engineering to math, math to technology, and science to the material of dichroic glass to create a large scale interactive installation that embraces STEM and manifests into an awe-inspiring experience for the guests and staff of the Museum.

The Sculpture

The sculpture is made of formed stainless steel tubing welded to stainless steel trusses for support, with dichroic glass mounted to the tubes. The colored glass in combination with the flowing pattern of the tubing will harness natural light and cast an astonishing array of colors and patterns on adjacent surfaces that will move and change throughout the day. Seating is integrated into the installation and encourages guests to walk through and gather under its dome-like structure, encouraging an immersive and interactive experience with the ever changing light patterns and colors.

Fibonacci’s Light appropriately complements the museum’s architecture by echoing the form of Broad Street Station’s central copper dome, while also referencing the Museum’s Dome theater inside. The landscape design will further reference the Fibonacci Sequence by featuring squares whose side lengths are successive Fibonacci numbers.