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Public Art Review | CBS News Coverage | CODA Merit Award Winner

Xavier Cortada, “Splash!,” 972 hand-painted melamine tubes suspended from aluminum grids on ceiling of an indoor swimming pool (Betty T. Ferguson Recreation Center Aquatic Facility, Miami Gardens, FL), 2012.

Cortada installed a sculpture of 972 “pool noodles” shaped into a big splash on the ceiling of an indoor municipal swimming pool (the work also acts as an acoustic treatment for the space).

In creating Splash!, artist Xavier Cortada worked with composer/engineer Colby Leider to visualize the resonant frequencies of the pool at Betty T. Ferguson Aquatic Center. The shapes of waveforms depict a literal splash within the pool.  This splash was visualized by solving the wave equation in two dimensions in a computer at the University of Miami’s Music Engineering Laboratory.

Splash! is a work of art that, made of hand-painted melamine foam,  also serves to enhance the sonic qualities of the space by absorbing excessive reverberation. In a unique partnership with the City of Miami Gardens, Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places solely administered the artist selection process.