Liquid Pixels

Liquid Pixels by Ned Kahn consists of six 42 x 25 foot vertical sections mounted on the north and west sides of this building. The six panels are covered with 630,000 one inch diameter disks affixed to low-friction pins. The disks move freely on their pins in response to wind, thus revealing invisible natural patterns. As light passes over the disks the glittering effect mimics water cascading down the façade.

Ned Kahn received an environmental studies degree from the University of Connecticut in 1982 and began merging his scientific background with artistic pursuits. From 1982 to 1996, Kahn was artist-in-residence at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum. Working with colleague and physicist Uwe Langmesser, Kahn devised the fluttering disk technique to make visible the wind’s movement. Kahn received a 2003 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum’s 2004 National Design Award for Environmental Design.

Liquid Pixels won an Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review Award in 2002.

Learn more about Ned Kahn.