A wall-sized digital art piece created from thousands of tiny screens and lenses was designed by Squint/Opera for the $650m Belfer Research Building, part of Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in Manhattan. The shimmering and animated foyer installation celebrates the college’s research work.

The large-scale digital installation (approx 4.6m x 2.7m) comprises 2800 mini screens set in a grid pattern behind a panel of thousands of circular acrylic discs – a reference to the lenses used in medical research. The dual layer construction makes it possible to read the wall from a distance as a single image, while up close each screen gives information about medical discoveries and other news from WCMC’s website. The installation is programmed so that the images and stories change constantly.

To bring the concept to life, every aspect of the hardware was designed from scratch. I was part of the small design team working with the producer, the hardware consultants (Hirsch & Mann) and other designers to develop the initial pitch. We went through many design iterations and I experimented using virtual 3d models to test various lens and screen combinations throughout the process. I also developed a pipeline to produce bespoke image and video content for the wall.

The project has won the CODAworx design award for best educational installation and was a Media Architecture Biennale future prototypes award finalist.

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