San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
"Signalscape" by Miki Iwasaki
San Diego International Airport recently unveiled its newest
public artwork in Terminal 1.
The piece, "Signalscape" by local architect/designer Miki Iwasaki, measures approximately 64 feet in length and is mounted over the baggage claim area. It is equipped with motion sensors that light up as people walk by.
The
project is part of Phase II of the Airport Art Master Plan, which sets out to integrate artwork into the design and infrastructure of San Diego International Airport.
We asked Iwasaki, a professor at Woodbury University, to tell us more about the installation:
CityBeat: Why was including the motion sensor important to the piece?
What does the visual pattern represent?
Nothing specifically. I mean it doesn't spell anything out nor is it symbolic. But its abstraction can be be associated with communication and information, I suppose.
You enjoy working with wood as a medium. Why is that? For such a large-scale piece, did you consider using any other materials?
Yes, well, I am often drawn to wood as a medium but I am working in
a variety of materials at the moment. This choice for wood for this
piece was [due to the] context. A bit unexpected, but [wood] also has strong
historical connection to aviation.Are you working on anything else we should know about?
