The Future of Sculpture

From the Eiffel Tower in Paris to Cloud Gate (often referred to as “the bean") in Chicago, humanity’s most ambitious large-scale sculptures inevitably seem to become the global icons that herald our cities, parks, and buildings.

These giant works of art act as history’s public bookmarks, capturing snapshots of a moment in time for a society—its culture, its values, and the very possibilities it can imagine.  

So why now, at the heart of an era when unprecedented technology continues to define nearly every aspect of our lives, do most public sculptures still feel decidedly 20th century in both their conception and realization? It is as if they are generations removed from this reality, and from the tectonic shifts that have reshaped who we are in a myriad of ways (so many, in fact, that we are all still working to identify them). 

BREAKFAST envisions a world where public and commercial sculpture accurately and vibrantly reflects these incredible changes, not just in what it means to be an individual living suspended between digital and physical experiences, but also to be part of an increasingly global and deeply interconnected society where our fates seem more intertwined (and the future of our species murkier) than ever. 

Zekreet Wind
Made of mirrored stainless-steel Flex-Rings — a medium in development by BREAKFAST. The piece is inspired from the rock formations on Zekreet beach in Qatar and its movements are driven by the real-time wind occurring on the beach

Sea Level Lighthouse
“Sea Level Lighthouse” is a public art sculpture conceived by BREAKFAST and uses their kinetic Brixels medium to bring attention to our rising sea levels. While the traditional lighthouse warns ships about approaching land, this sculpture warns people about the approaching sea. It does this by visualizing the nearby real-time water level, comparing it to where it was several decades ago (the top of the base).

A New Kind of Bronze

BREAKFAST's mesmerizing pieces depend largely on original kinetic mediums that are aesthetically-driven but computer-controlled—as appealing in their form as they are unique in their technical achievement. Each medium might be best-described as a new kind of dynamic bronze that can be used to cast a new category of sculpture—fluid, interactive, durable, and intended to prompt deep moments of reflection in each viewer. 

BREAKFAST is already actively creating, presenting, and selling work from two of its original mediums (Brixels and Flip-Discs) and is far along in the creation of three new mediums that will all be unveiled over the next two years.   

Vitals
A Public Art Sculpture concept that visualizes the vital signs of a city via a constant pulse moving through the piece based on real-time city-data. The data is pulled from several sources, from the economy to the real-time impacts of climate change. 

Creating Modern Icons

Innovation is the lifeblood of any great metropolis or institution. As cities, buildings, and museums across the globe continue to advance technologically, what new public work will match to define this new era? What sculpture will represent the "now" and stand the test of time for the next 50 years?

BREAKFAST is committed to seizing this opportunity to help our cities move forward in creating truly progressive public art. These pieces will bring our public spaces into the 21st century, and challenge us to participate more fully in ambitious and necessary articulations of what our public spaces and our society should be. They will seek to elevate ideas and values that are worthy of aspiring to achieve, and that will bring a new sense of wonder and joy into the world. Please get in touch if you would like to collaborate.

Positive Flow
A kinetic sculpture concept using BREAKFAST's Pivot-Tile medium.

Everything is Connected
(through the Web)

The majority of BREAKFAST's works are themed around creating an immediate sensory and emotional bridge between their viewer and another place, person, or time. Rather than move through some pre-programmed animation, each piece’s movements are constantly evolving in response to the real-time changes in data occurring somewhere else—oceans, temperatures, wind, space, social movements and much more. In other words, not only are these sculptures far from static—they strive to use digital networks to draw audiences out of their individual experiences and into a shared physical narrative, where some activity in a far-away land is serving as the heartbeat of an experience that is happening right here, right now.

See Yourself in the Story

Art is nothing without an audience. Almost all of BREAKFAST work is explicitly interactive in some way, oftentimes incorporating a viewer’s reflected image into the piece as they stand in front of it. This not only creates a visually exciting and memorable experience, but also acts as a representation of each individual’s role—both in creating the piece’s meaning and in the broader cultural story that underlies each work. In a piece that is about climate change, for example, the clarity of one's reflection might vary based on the current real-time levels of CO2 or the temperature of the ocean at a seemingly distant and disconnected locale. This prompts a question about the viewer’s role in global warming and collapses the imagined gap between places—and years of historical social trends—into a single moment.

Drive
An outdoor sculpture design made from Brixels that responds to the currents of a nearby waterway as well as anyone who approaches the piece.