The NTU campus is a showroom of sustainable art. Derek Rodriguez takes you on a tour of some of the highlights from the Campus Art Trail
1. The butterfly effect
Math and art are a match made at The Arc. Loop, the newest sculptural installation on campus, features 1,200 pink and magenta butterflies fluttering in a Möbius strip, one of the most curious shapes in mathematics. Loop captures the beauty of the butterflies commonly found on our campus. The butterflies flutter with the slightest wind, creating a self-sustained and dynamic visual display. The shape of the sculpture is also a representation of continuous learning at NTU.
2. Leaf on a high
Rest your feet and recharge your smartphone’s battery at Fern, the 12-seater wooden bench overlooking the North Spine Plaza. The photovoltaic panels installed on the three largest “leaves” harvest energy from the sun, which is directed to two charging stations for electrical devices.
3. Second life for trees
Trees felled to make way for new buildings on campus were not discarded but given a new lease of life as usable art. From these trees, over 50 items, including chairs and tables, were created. The art pieces are displayed all over the campus, including at the medical and humanities and social sciences buildings.
4. Where you and AI collide
With the development of technologies like artificial intelligence, we need to consider their impact on us. This is expressed through the Third Paradise, three large connecting circles made of the red sessile joyweed plant on the grass roof of the School of Art, Design & Media building. The smaller circles on each side represent the natural and manmade worlds, while the largest one in the middle symbolises a harmonious balance between both.
5. Leading light
As the first sustainable art installation created by the NTU community, Dandelion lighted the way for the others that followed. The solar-powered art installation stands outside the entrance of the School of Art, Design & Media unassumingly until nightfall, when all 59 seeds light up independently and flicker when the wind blows.
6. Flower power
NTU’s Novena campus is symbolically linked with the main campus through Bloom, a wall mural art installation of 18 flowers inspired by the Chinese honeysuckle or Rangoon creeper, at the Clinical Sciences Building. Powered by solar panels on top of the building, the flowers bloom in random sequence. The accompanying LED lights go from white to pink to deep red in response to changing weather conditions on the main NTU campus.
This story was published in the Oct-Dec 2019 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.
