Dedication and operation
Night view of south tower (flank view)
[edit]Unveiling
Construction of the video sculpture was completed for testing without the fountain\'s water features on May 18, 2004.[31]Cyber MondayOriginally, Plensa had planned to have each face appear for 13 minutes,[19] and this continued to be the targeted duration when the testing of the sculpture occurred.[31] Eventually, professors at the School ofCyber Mondaythe Art Institute of Chicago convinced him to use only five-minute videos.[19]
Plensa\'s design of Crown Fountain was unveiled to the public on July 16–18, during the 2004 grand opening celebrations forCyber MondayMillennium Park,[46] which was sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.[47] At the time of the unveiling, Crown Fountain, like the nearby Cloud Gate, was incomplete because only 300 of the videos had been refined forCyber Mondaypublic display.[48] It was officially dedicated on July 24, 2004 as part of a special private fundraising party that raised $3 million for the Millennium Park Conservancy fund.[49][50]
[edit]Operation
TheCyber Mondaycontrol center for the synchronization of images, water flow, and lighting color and intensity is beneath one of the towers, in a room that covers 550 square feet (51 m2). The room houses high-definition videoCyber Mondayservers and equipment temperature sensors. Hard drives contain all the individual electronic computer files of the face videos. Generally, the computer programs automatically perform tasks such as determiningCyber Mondaywhen the face will pucker and, if weather conditions permit, when to turn the water on and off. Using low- rather than high-resolution images was both less expensive and created a better display for the averageCyber Mondayviewer.[2] A Barco show controller selects the sequence of faces one at a time and determines a random tower lighting selection of one of eight LED colors programmed into an Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC)Cyber MondayEmphasis control system.[3] At night, the ETC system controls spotlights that illuminate the cascading water and that are dimmed by special wet-use location ground fault circuit interrupters.[3] The control roomCyber Mondaycovers an area equal to 26 parking spaces in the underground parking garage, which costs the city $100,000 annually in terms of the opportunity cost of lost revenue (in 2004 dollars).[25]
[edit]VideoCyber Mondaysculpture
The front face of each tower is animated with a continuous, dynamic exhibit of lights and electronic images.[1] Although the LED screens on the towers periodically display clips of landscapes such asCyber Mondaywaterfalls, most intriguing are the display of faces of Chicago residents. About 1,000 faces of Chicagoans are shown in a random rotation,[2] the order determined using a Barco show controller.[3] Each face isCyber Mondaydisplayed for five minutes, with a brief period between each of these videos during which the sculpture is unlit. As a result, no more than 12 faces appear per hour during the summer. However, during the winter aCyber Mondayversion without the final one minute of puckering is shown, so the video segments then are only four minutes each.[10][19] The video pattern also includes a three-minute water scene every half-hour and aCyber Monday30-second fade-to-black every 15 minutes. If all the faces were shown consecutively, instead of randomly, they would each appear about once every eight days.[10] A June 2007 article in the Chicago Sun-TimesCyber Mondayreported that many of the subjects who had their images digitized for the project had yet to either see their own images or hear of anyone who had seen them.[10]
Every 15 minutes the LEDs fade to black andCyber Mondaythere is a brief pause between individual videos.
The spouting water from the faces of the towers appears to be flowing from the displayed subject\'s mouth from a 6-inch (150 mm) nozzle located in the center ofCyber Mondayeach interior face 12 feet (3.7 m) above the reflecting pool.[19] Images are shown daily year-round, while the water feature only operates from May 1 to approximately October 31,[4] weather permitting.[32] TheCyber Mondaypark is open to the public daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.[51]
Each tower is illuminated from within on three sides by approximately 70 color-changing Color Kinetics LED lighting fixtures per tower, while theCyber Mondayfourth side features opposing Barco LED display screens. At night, some of the videos are replaced by images of nature or solid colors.[3] Also at night, the other three sides of the fountain display changingCyber Mondaycolors.[40] The outer Color Kinetics surfaces randomly display the translucent glow of one of eight colors along with each of the inner opposing faces.[3] As a video sculpture with a variety of cascade and waterCyber Mondayspout fountain modes, the sculpture is a fluid, dynamic evolving artwork.[29]
[edit]Fountain
The drainage system for the water shooting into the reflecting pool uses end-to-end drainage slits in lieu ofCyber Mondaycentral drains.
The cascading water falls towards grating.
Crown Fountain has both slits and a grate for drainage (pictured above right) to drain the 11,520 US gal (43,608 l; 9,592 imp gal) of water perCyber Mondayminute.[52] When the videos are not on the front of the tower, water cascades down each of the facades. The water is filtered, pumped and recirculated through the fountain. Dual pump rooms below each tower drawCyber Mondaywater from a reservoir beneath the reflecting pool. There are 12 mechanical pumps that are regulated from a control room in the underground parking garage beneath the south tower of the fountain.[41][53] The
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