Michael Hayden
"Quadrille"
Public art on Duke Energy building
Charlotte, North Carolina
1996

See also the design and installation of "Arpeggio"
in Nashville, Tennessee.

This 80 foot square neon artwork contains 53 neon elements.  It dominates the Charlotte
skyline, facing the Panther's stadium.  By day dozens of holographically originated
diffraction grating panels cast rainbow colors, while by night the neon lights flash in ever
changing animated choreographies.

Michael wanted the neon to contain many hours of distinct programmed animations
that would be randomly selected so that an average commuter would never see the
same animation at the same time on subsequent days.

The client, Duke Energy also wanted an interactive element since the artwork can be
seen from the upper levels of the Panther Stadium.  They had it in mind that the artwork
would be appear to respond to goals scored in the stadium with short hyper active
animations.  I engineered the controls so that 9 different short animations can be activated
from any telephone.

The controller that I built contains over 9 megabytes of data which is fed to the 53 power relays.
I used a Basic Stamp II microcontroller to select from 128 banks of memory containing
the animations.

The animations were programmed by myself; my wife, Rebekah Younger ; and light
sculptor Milton Komisar.

The control system that I designed (seen here before installation) consumes an average of
30 Amps when running.  Since Duke Energy is the power provider for much of Carolina
this is of little concern to them!  It measures about 2 by 3 feet, and contains a control
box with a LCD status indicator display and test buttons.

Michael Hayden's portfolio page

contact Michael Hayden

back to top