Description
Wavefunction is a kinetic sculpture comprised of fifty to one hundred Charles and Ray Eames moulded chairs (designed in 1948) and placed in a regular array of rows, facing the entrance to the exhibition space. When someone approaches the work, a computerised surveillance system detects their presence and the closest chairs automatically begin to lift off the ground, creating the crest of a wave that then spreads over the whole room. A system of electromechanical pistons raises each chair forty centimetres from the ground. The pistons are controlled by a computer that runs the mathematics of fluid dynamics, thus making the waves interfere with each other, creating turbulence or becoming calm, just like real water.

The idea of a “function” as a field for artistic experimentation is a motivation for this piece. Other references include: the mathematics of dynamic systems, capable of generating complex non-linear, behaviours, the materialisation of surveillance and turbulence and the anti-modular reinterpretation of the work of modern designers such as Charles and Ray Eames.

Year of creation
2007. Premiered at the Venice Biennale.
Technique
Electromechanical pistons, computers, chairs, surveillance cameras and circuits.
Dimensions
Variable dimensions.

Exhibitions
• bitforms gallery, New York City, NY, USA, 2008.
• Kulczyk Foundation, Poznan, Poland, 2008.
• "Some Things Happen More Often Than All Of The Time" (curated by Príamo Lozada and Bárbara Perea), Mexican Pavilion – 52 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2007.

Photos
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Conroy Badger — programming
Gideon May — simulation
Pierre Fournier, David Lemieux, Natalie Bouchard, Boris Dempsey, Paul Duchaine, Sandra Badger, Stephan Schulz, Olfa Driss, Guy Bärtschi and Justine Durrett — production
Vitra — production support

Commissioned for the Mexican Pavilion, 52nd Biennale di Venezia, 2007