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Electronic Moving Sculpture
Case Study: Electronic Moving Sculpture for Urban Artists Greyworld
Established as a world-class group of artists; Greyworld's primary objective is to create public art so that visitors become actively part of the installation itself, the work not being complete without them. Their work, unlike that of other artists, regularly embraces technology to create something that otherwise may not be possible and MLE were very excited at the chance of working with them.
The brief
To help Greyworld with the design of their moving sculpture "The Source" commissioned by the London Stock Exchange.
The Source is a moving sculpture that combines an innovative application of technology and ground-breaking art to visually represent London's financial markets in an electronic age. The sculpture's constantly changing shape is intended to reflect the dynamic nature of the stock market. Every day The Source marks whether the markets have opened and closed up or down with an arrow and it can also create random shifting patterns, words, numbers and shapes all reflecting occurrences in the markets throughout the day.
The Source is made up of 729 spheres suspended across 162 cables that are 5.6km in length. 1400 blue LED's ensure that each sphere is lit from within and spanning 6 floors, The Source is 10 metres taller than the Angel of the North.
The Challenge
MLE were initially contracted purely to manufacture The Source's 2000+ printed circuit boards (PCBs), however it wasn't long before both companies realised there was a need for further electronics development, as technical difficulties with the original design began presenting themselves. With over 10 years' experience of designing and manufacturing, MLE was the obvious candidate to undertake both development and production. They were able to build upon Greyworld's existing design to better facilitate the boards' manufacture. "We actually redesigned the PCBs in the end to make them easier to produce." Peter Doré, Operations Director remarks, "because we have our own manufacturing facility here at MLE we are better able to design electronics with suitability for manufacture in mind and, in this case, this was crucial to the efficient running of the project."
It was equally and extremely important to Greyworld that MLE remained aware of the need to keep the artistic concept very much in place. Even when the original electronics were modified MLE were still very much aware that their technological expertise was simply an enabler for Greyworld's artistic creation.
In taking on the design of the board, MLE encountered another issue to test their skills; the power lines along which The Sources 2000 spheres' travelled up and down were also required to be lines of communication between the spheres and central control. To overcome this MLE pioneered a technique that interrupted the power supply as a means of communication.
There were also very tight deadlines to work to right from the start of their involvement; everything had to be ready in time for the Queen to officially open the new Stock Exchange building 27th July 2004. That gave them just 3 months for the completion of the project.
The solution
Using their skills in embedded intelligence MLE enabled The Source control's ability to listen to the Greyworld system and interpret instructions and decisions. This allowed it to create endless formations, from a DNA helix, to a sunrise and this flexibility meant that The Source could respond in real-time to represent fluctuations of the stock market.
Cost reduction
One of Greyworld's requirements was an economical design that overcame the constraint of cost and could be mass replicated for each of the sphere's PCBs. MLE took an alternative approach to solving this by using a power supply chip instead of a conventional motor driver chip. In using this type of chip to carry out a motor drive function, the cost of controlling each sphere's motor speed was more than halved.
Fast turnaround
MLE rose to the challenge and managed to complete the project in record time. PCBs were turned round from concept to working pre-production prototypes in 4 weeks and then 2000 finished (fully tested) units in another 4 weeks. This kind of output is just phenomenal for a company of MLE's size. Key to achieving this was the dedication of the MLE team and the project management experience and expertise needed to achieve maximum output in a minimal timeframe.
Outcomes
The opening of the London Stock Exchange and subsequent unveiling of The Source was watched by 200 million people around the world. The Source is televised to over 12 million people every day at 8am as the stock markets open and 50 million people see it every day around the world as various new reports come live from the stock exchange.
Reflecting on the project Greyworld's Andrew Shoben could only praise MLE's involvement "MLE really saved our bacon, they really are good people who bring to the table their whole focus and a lot of expertise. They have a great team and we were really impressed with their level of support. You get the whole show with MLE and we would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone."
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