Calgary has many fascinating pieces of public art to explore. One of the newest – and least well known – is the Chinook Arc sculpture by Creative Machines at the corner of 12th Avenue and 9th Street SW in the Beltline neighbourhood. Installed in 2014, the arc appears as a curving infinity loop, resembling a ribbon twisted and contorted into a wavy ring of grey-white acrylic about the size of a small house. It is one of the most engaging pieces of public art revealed in the city in the past few years and is growing in popularity with the burgeoning art and design aficionados hungry to explore Calgary’s blossoming creative design community.
If you don’t regularly visit on foot or live in the Beltline (not everyone is perfect after all), you may recall seeing the Chinook Arc sculpture while driving down 12th Avenue as a strange lump of grey-white plastic on the south side of the road as you approach the intersection 9th Street SW. The park space the sculpture resides in was recently redeveloped and dedicated to Barb Scott, a long-time City of Calgary Alderman from decades gone past. It is nestled right next to the historic Calgary Collegiate Institute, a beautiful sandstone school house amended by a modern upgrade to include connection to a contemporary office building .
The Collegiate Institute may not be a familiar name to Calgarians, as few around today can claim to have attended there. The school house dates to the pre-1920s era where Calgary built many magnificent sandstone school houses throughout what is now the inner city. Several name changes later, the school house now hosts part of the headquarters of the Calgary Board of Education. Despite some modern additions, the original charm and architecture still is prominent. Separate entrances for girls and boys are permanently engraved above the school’s two south entrances. A strange reminder of how different life was in Calgary 100 years ago.
Back to the Chinook Arc:
The statue is said to represent several motifs. It embodies the winter chinook arch weather patterns that famously warm a frigid Calgary every winter with strong warm winds from the Rocky Mountains to the west. It is also described to represent the Beltline loop; a historic street-car route from the early twentieth century which the Beltline gets it’s name from. You may agree or may not; art is up for interpretation. There are no right answers.
Much less debatable is how much fun Chinook Arc is. Unlike most static sculptures, it hides a secret interactive side that takes this piece of grey-white acrylic to another level.
During the day, the sculpture appears as a curving monolith; interesting but not quite remarkable. Don’t be fooled. Like many things in life, the magic of Chinook Arc happens after dark.
Wait for the sun to set, round up some friends and head down.
How it works:
- On the inside of the arc structure is a small interface: a green button with a lens beneath, in the silhouette of a smart phone.
- Press the green button.
- Once the green button is pressed, the sculpture projects the light captured from the lens beneath the green button
- Put your red shirt in front of it, the sculpture turns red
- Put a blue sweater in front of it and the sculpture turns blue
Think like a chameleon; the sculpture reflects what colour you put next to the lens.
The novelty of such a sculpture changing instantly to your every whim is enjoyable. The breakthrough came one rainy night at Chinook Arc showing it to several friends from out of town. A fellow design aficionado wandered up as I was using my red shirt / blue sweater trick to impress all around me. He politely waited until I finished my rant before interjecting.
He pulled me aside and in a near-whisper voice, told me to play a music video to the lens, not just waving my hand or sleeve in front of it like some sort of rookie.
“Remember,” he said, “Not just any music video, a bright and colourful one, ideally that aligns the video’s colour to the beat of the music. Show them what this beast can do,” and with that he disappeared into the night like a shadow into the shade. Spooky.
Not one to discard advice from random strangers in the night, I decided to give it a try, selecting the most colour-coordinated video I could think of. The results speak for themselves:
Just think if BassBus gets wind of this technology. A electronic dance party in Barb Scott Park with Chinook Arc timed to the beat? Perhaps someone more motivated than me should make that happen.
Music by Kanye West
Video by Ryan McCarthy @rylucky
Story & Photos by Greg McCarthy @G_Mc_C