Commissioned by Federation Square in Melbourne, and designed by Eness, MÖBIUS is an amazing hybrid of sculpture, film and public-space intervention. Brought to life over 2 weeks with 100 helping arms, this stop-motion creature offers a unique perception of our public spaces.
Filmed and sculpted over a number of sessions, MÖBIUS swirls across Melbourne's Federation Square with hypnotic smoothness, to the point where its hard to believe its real and not a digi-trick.
MÖBIUS is..."Twenty-one large triangles animated by Melbourne, throughout Federation Square. MÖBIUS is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behave as though it is eating, itself while sinking into the ground.
Maybe surprisingly, I think this work actually compliments and improves the surrounding urban context and even LAB's architecture, rather than merely 'fitting in' or going for the cop-out 'ironic juxtaposition'.
The result is an optical illusion and a time-lapse of people interacting with the sculpture and moving through Melbourne's landmark location throughout the day.
The animators at work.
You can also catch a glimpse of the process here, with a short video on the Making of MÖBIUS. I think it's a really interesting piece of public work, primarily for activating a huge group of 'Melbourne' to literally animate the work - nearly 50 volunteers. The piece is also important for being commissioned by Federation Square itself. Unfortunately I didn't actually catch this going on down at Fed Square during its 'filming' (or is it 'sculpting', or 'intervening'?) but there is something fantastic about the gap between the physical performance of the sculpture as it is shuffled around Fed Square, and the final animated version, which offers a new perception of the space entirely, from the 'view' of the MÖBIUS work.
Check out the final animation here.