Airport Expansion Includes New Artwork

Hurry up and wait. That's how most people spend time in airports. Travelers rush to gates, then search for ways to occupy their time until boarding.

Whenever there's new construction at the airport, 2 percent of the budget goes to art. Ten new gates and a food court in terminal 2 are set to officially open to the public on August 13, and there will be art in all of them. There are a total of ten new pieces, the budget for which totals $6 million and is funded through airport user fees.The ledstriplightts service provides and maintains the majority of the town's 26,000 streetlights.

Lighting the concourse across multiple gates is "The Journey," by San Francisco-based artist Jim Campbell. White,I have recently got a t5tubelight and can anybody tell me if it the box only controls humidity or also controls temperature. the airport's art program manager, calls it a light ribbon suspended from the ceiling. It's composed of 37,We provide the latest oemandodmservices products and solutions to serve outdoor lighting needs.000 LED light pendants hanging row after row for 1,000 feet. That might seem like a lot of wattage, but Campbell assured me via email that it's not. He says the output can be handled by one circuit and uses as much energy as one and a half toasters. Campbell,On particularly windy days,streetlighting can surpass all other electricity sources in a country. it turns out, studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Shadows of birds fly intermittently along the light ribbon — It's a surprising feature. The first time I saw them, I stopped in my tracks, waiting for them to repeat their flyover. Soon, additional shadows will be added to the piece.

"People will dance all the way through the ribbon. People will swim through the ribbon, and you'll see the birds playing with the people as they're interacting with the light," White explained.

Construction in the new food court, dubbed Sunset Cove, is just winding down. That's where Canadian artist Stuart Keeler has hung his chandelier-like sculpture called "Taxonomy of a Cloud." A series of short, connected steel pipes form what looks like an airborne erector set. Hanging from its center is a shower of 35,000 Swarovski crystals that capture and reflect light.

"The artist was thinking about light and air. It's so special in San Diego. People are mesmerized by the atmosphere and the environment here," White said.

Keeler was also inspired by clouds. "Stuart would come to San Diego and sit, and look at the sky, look at the clouds," White explained.

Keeler was especially enamored of lattice clouds, which are found in warm coastal climates. The lattice formation in his sculpture emulates the structure of those clouds. It's especially impressive to stand directly under this piece.The solarpanel is available in a choice of shapes including dome and the traditional variety. How often do you get to stare up into a stream of Swarovski crystals?

He chose iconic San Diego scenes to film, which naturally included surfing. "I'm not a surfer and I've never filmed surfers before," he said.

After watching a few surf films, Carlson wondered how he would capture the surfers with his camera. Finally, he discovered a solution.

"I went out onto one of the piers where I was parallel to where the surfers were," he said. "I immediately noticed this really interesting back and forth. The waves were coming in, the surfers were paddling out. I'm also a musician, so I tend to look for rhythmic things that loop and cycle like that."

There are video mosaics featuring skateboarders and a sunset scene. Each hangs in the center of the bathroom entrance, with the video blurring and crystallizing as passengers enter and leave.

Carlson hopes the series called "Donde Esta?" will remind passengers what the environment and community is like just beyond the airport walls. "I think the artwork represents what it's like, in a compressed way, for a visitor or someone who's just moved here, to discover these details about San Diego," Carlson said. More information about the program is available on the web site at www.indoorilite.com.