EEE? is a temporary installation designed and fabricated by infrared in the context of a larger event organized by the city of Thessaloniki. The city asked from 6 different teams/artists to create one ‘ear’ in order to be placed in the six different sectors of the city. The idea of the city representatives was that the ears were going to signify the intention of the municipality to ‘hear’ the proposals of the citizens regarding cultural matters. For that reason a box was placed along with each ear in order to allow people to leave inside of it messages with their ideas. The ear designed by infrared was chosen to be placed in Aristotelous square, at the heart of the city of Thessaloniki.
The design and the fabrication of the installation were based on a parametric model that ‘analyzed’ a 3-dimentional model of an ear into a ‘pixelized’ version of it. The dimensions of the pixels were controlled parametrically in order to test different options that were representing different material sizes. The material used was simple wooden bars with a profile of 45X45mm, dimensions that were creating a result that would minimize the required material, while at the same time would not compromise the form of the ear. The model was further optimized in order to create 7 different types of components in a total number of 409 component / boxes. It was then used in order to export fabrication drawings describing the assemblage mode and excel spreadsheets with all the information regarding the component sizing.
EEE? was installed in the 24th of March and the reaction of the citizens to it was immediate, with the‘message box’ being filled from the first day. EEE? stayed in place for a month, during which became part of the city life. People started interacting with it in more immediate ways, by writing messages directly on the installation and using the pixilated form in order to create something that looked like an ‘urban crossword’. Two days before the day that it was supposed to be removed from the city, a large demonstration took place in the square, from followers of a football team that were opposing to a recent penalty that their team received. As things went out of control, the installation was set on fire by the protestors and then disassembled in several pieces that were subsequently lost, creating this way for EEE? a ‘life story’ far more interesting and adventurous from what we could have imagined when we were designing it!
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