Internationally acclaimed artist Janet Echelman will give a presentation on her groundbreaking work that defies categorization as it intersects disciplinary boundaries, from Sculpture, Architecture, Urban Design, Material Science, Computer Science, Engineering, and Performance. Echelman creates experiential sculpture at the scale of buildings that transform with wind and light. The art shifts from being an object you look at, to something you can get lost in. Using unlikely materials from knotted fiber and atomized water particles to choreographed dancers, Echelman combines ancient craft with original computational design software to create artworks that have become focal points for urban life on five continents. Echelman‘s permanent commissions have transformed urban environments worldwide, and include Remembering the Future at the MIT Museum (2025), Butterfly Rest Stop in Frisco, TX (2024), Current in Columbus, OH (2023), Bending Arc at the St. Pete Pier in Florida (2020), Earthtime Korea in South Korea (2020), mist sculpture Pulse (2018) in front of Philadelphia City Hall, Dream Catcher (2017) on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, CA, Impatient Optimist (2015) at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Every Beating Second (2011) at San Francisco International Airport, Her Secret Is Patience (2009) in downtown Phoenix, and She Changes (2005) in Porto, Portugal.
This event is sponsored by the Arts+ Initiative in the Office of the Provost.