How to hold drifting fog inside a site.
An outdoor installation made with Fujiko Nakaya, the fog sculptor. Commissioned by the Institut francais du Japon – Tokyo, it stood in the forecourt of the institute for about a month, from 24 September to 31 October 2009. It is one of Nakaya's Fog Sculpture series, Fog Installation #47662 Ichigaya.
Weather sensors were set at two points in the garden, reading wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity moment by moment. Two hundred fog nozzles in nine lines were placed around the garden facing its centre, each line opened and closed by a motorised valve developed for the piece. The fog is thrown toward a virtual target at the centre, and the position of that target shifts with the temperature, the humidity, the movement of the air – and with the force of the spray itself. The system feels the wind, the fog chases the target, and as a result the fog stays inside the site. The name comes from the way one rolls mercury in the palm to keep it from falling. It can also be read as mercurial unfolding, and the initials MU carry both fog and nothingness in Japanese.
The length of each spray, the interval at which the programme runs, the angle at which each nozzle sits: Nakaya decided every one of them on site, releasing fog and watching it. The behaviour of the fog itself rests on the weather, the wind, and whatever happens to occur on the day.
SPACE
COMPUTATION
DATA
| Artist | Fujiko Nakaya |
|---|---|
| Location | Shinjuku-ku Tokyo (forecourt of the Institut francais du Japon – Tokyo) |
| Programme | Installation |
| Completed | 2009 |
| Specification | 200 nozzles in 9 lines / 2 pumps / 9 automatic valves / 2 weather stations |
| Production | Hiroko Tasaka, Tomoko Noda |
| Support | Shoji Matsudaira, Yasuyuki Nakamura |
| Exhibited / Published | Institut francais du Japon – Tokyo (24 September – 31 October 2009) / Fog Sculpture #47662 Ichigaya / Anyang, Korea (March 2014) |