The sculpture I’m Laughing At Clouds by Michael Pinsky features nine “tactile” columns which, when touched, detect the heartbeat of participants and convert the readings into a composition of light and sound.
As visitors touch the sensors a child’s voice will sing a note, than at the point the heartbeat is registered the note will follow the rhythm of the heartbeat. Both the illumination and the sound will get progressively softer until they both drift away completely, only to be reignited when the sensor is touched again.
The voices were recorded by around 80 children from Brunswick Nursery in Cambridge, in keeping with the community theme.
The official opening will take place at 6.30pm on 24 September. Professor Roderick Watkins, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin, will welcome students, staff and members of the local community. There will also be a performance by the Daisy Farris Dance Collective.
Professor Watkins said: “This art project captures what Anglia Ruskin is all about, combining innovation with community spirit. It is the perfect finishing touch to our new building which will be a huge benefit to our students in the years to come.
“We’re delighted to invite our Young Street neighbours and other members of the community to join our staff and students at this launch so they can appreciate this fine artwork close up.”
Mr Pinsky said: “It has been a real pleasure working closely with Anglia Ruskin and the local nursery to create this work. I hope that in the future the children who have participated in this work will be able to bring their own children to ‘I’m Laughing at Clouds’ to play with their own heartbeats and to listen to their parents’ voices.”
The artwork will also form part of the Cambridge e-Luminate Festival and provides a finishing touch to the newly completed building in Young Street which features clinical skills laboratories, a mock maternity ward and operating theatre, classrooms and office space for academic staff.
Tours of the building will run at 4pm and 5.30pm before the unveiling of the sculpture. To book a place, please e-mail miriam.berg@anglia.ac.uk
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For more press information please contact:
Jon Greenon t: 01245 684717, e: jon.green@anglia.ac.uk
Jamie Forsython t: 01245 684716, e: jamie.forsyth@anglia.ac.uk