Photos by Clements/Howcroft, Boston
Modulation
2000
Artists: Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter
13.5'h 8.5'w 10.5'd
Mixed Media
Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting
University of Houston
Houston, TX
This sculpture starts with a portrait of humanity, one of several the artists have evolved based on computer composites of world racial types; it is intentionally androgynous.
Over a steel wire frame armature, hundreds of technological components are attached to form a skin. These castoff elements represent the detritus of our age, much of it from the broadcasting center itself.
The work incorporates several active elements, including video monitor "eyes", one of which displays the station's live television broadcast while the other displays activity in the entry hall captured by a miniature surveillance camera. Speakers emit a low-volume transmission of the station's radio programming (including main and sideband signals). A "halo" of functioning computer fans encircles the head.
Viewers directly beneath the sculpture can look up to view its interior, dominated by a 2000-element LED map showing a night satellite image of greater Houston. On the perimeter is a functioning oscilloscope displaying the center's television signal.
Commissioned by the University of Houston
Project Team: Matt Koestner, Sarah Rodrigo
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