NORTH ADAMS, MA.- Beginning October 23, 2010 and running through March 2012, MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) will present a new site-specific sculpture by Prague-based artist Federico Díaz. Created from 420,000 black spheres precisely milled and assembled by robotic machines, the 50-feet long by 20-feet high sculpture, Geometric Death Frequency—141, will fill MASS MoCA’s entrance courtyard with a fragmented wave seemingly caught between movement and stasis. An opening reception with the artist will be held at MASS MoCA, Saturday, October 23 from 2–4pm.

Architecture critic and curator Jeff Kipnis calls Diaz’s work “re-origination,” comparing it to the making of a book into a film. In one sense the film represents the book, yet does so in an entirely new medium, and through this becomes something completely different. In the case of Geometric Death Frequency—141, the “book” is a digital photograph of the museum’s clocktower entry courtyard as taken by the artist, which the artist then transforms into pure data, and modulates using analytical and fluid dynamic modeling techniques, finally rendering the data stream into a three-dimensional sculpture using state-of-the-art computer-aided manufacturing methodologies. The new work thus combines elements of photographic manipulation, data analysis, and computer programming, utilizing new techniques to produce a sculpture completely untouched by human hands.

Visually, Geometric Death Frequency—141 combines Diaz’s interest in the built environment, deep natural forces such as cellular growth, physics and fluid dynamics to create a massive wave confined within an invisible 50 by 20- foot tank that penetrates the wall of MASS MoCA’s lobby from the exterior of the museum’s main entrance courtyard. As the wave hits imaginary boundaries, it splashes back and up as high as the second storey galleries of the museum.

An interior installation of one of the robotic machines used to manufacture the work will accompany Díaz’s presentation at MASS MoCA. The robot will assemble additional spheres to be later added to the massive sculpture, providing viewers with the opportunity to experience the process by which Geometric Death Frequency—141 is created. The Díaz-developed process is unique—in addition to utilizing modern computer-aided manufacturing techniques, pure data and algorithms based on particle physics are the guiding forces behind the sculpture’s shape, texture and size.

MASS MoCA’s courtyard, where the natural elements of Natalie Jeremijenko’s Tree Logic and a mature blaze maple specimen tree are presented within the industrial confines of MASS MoCA’s architecture, provides an ideal ground for Díaz’s site-specific creation in which a lifeless, manmade vehicle transforms data into a tangible, material creation (the sculpture).

Artist Federico Díaz comments, “Creating a unique object, which transformed the museum into a new form of algorithmic architecture was a fascinating journey full of unforgettable emotions.”

Director of MASS MoCA Joseph C. Thompson comments, “Federico is, in a way, the ultimate shape-shifter, but his works are always deeply rooted in physical reality. In this instance Federico has ‘deconstructed’ a photographic image of our entrance courtyard. Taking the digital bits and bytes which define the location, depth, and color of the pixels from the photographic image, Federico rearranges them thru the artful application of the laws of fluid dynamics. The three-dimensional black spheres that make up this work are in some ways distant relatives of the pixels of that original, two-dimensional photograph, but instead of being transcribed into a flat image as micro dots of ink on paper, here they well up into great waves that crash against the very walls of their original subject matter. There is something alchemical or magical about it: The bricks and mullions and windows of our buildings become files of digital data, the pixels become black spheres meticulously cut, stacked and assembled, the courtyard becomes and contains sculpture – and all the while Federico remains behind the curtain, as if to say ‘look ma, no hands.’ If data manipulation sounds dry, this work helps show that data too can fluctuate between stasis and movement, permanence and change, fullness and utter emptiness.”