Out of Memory for the SCI-Arc Gallery in downtown Los Angeles was an experiential piece: a convergence of sound, material, light, form, and technology. Memory was the vehicle; the familiar was the impetus. The installation proposed a new structural materiality through the use of renewable polyurethane foam as a complete building assembly. Layers of closed cell foam (used structurally) and open cell foam (used acoustically) combined to create it. The pure geometry of the parabola provided a natural self-structural form. 

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The interior surface of the parabolic structure was a three-dimensional representation of the musical composition. Realized through on-site, six-axis robotic milling, the sonic contours were derived from the sound contained within. A mapping of frequency based on a spectrogram of the composition was translated into points and vectors providing a framework for the digitally modeled three-dimensional surface. The data was then used to robotically carve the volume’s interior surface.

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The spiraling geometry and acoustically absorptive material magnified both the spatial and the aural. Notions of memory were challenged. Traces of the ambient, combined with visions of the past, present, and future, heightened one’s awareness of the space, while altering perceptions. The piece transcended the original vision. The final outcome was derived from the act of making, and the memory of that act was eclipsed by the residual. Only the remnant of our pursuit remained in the gallery afterward.