A public ceremony revealing the new design will take place 8-9 p.m. ?Thursday.
Lighting artist Rob Shakespeare, who also created Light Totem outside of the IU Art Museum, ?designed the display.
The display will include spotlights every 60 degrees to create a floating illusion for the 12,000-pound sculpture, according to a ?University press release.
The lights will also respond to movement and will change colors and patterns.
The display will also be changed according to different seasons or special events, such as pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to work on this sculpted limestone canvas,” said Shakespeare, professor emeritus of lighting design in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance, in a press release. “My job as a lighting artist has been to paint ?moving pictures of light over this brain. This is a very colorful and animated work; it will be as though the brain is discovering and reacting to you. There are some secrets in this brain we’re eager for people to uncover.”
A four-piece jazz band from the IU Jacobs School of Music will perform at ?the ceremony.
The event will also feature a speech from Shakespeare and four people from the College of Arts and Sciences and Bloomington. All students and community members are invited to ?attend the ceremony.
The limestone brain was designed by Amy Brier, a local Bloomington-based ?artist.
“The limestone takes the light beautifully. Rob’s design enhances the form and makes the brain dance,” Brier said in the press release. “One of the pleasures in being an artist comes when you see your work take on a life of its own and other people having their own relationship with it. We were in agreement about the spirit of the work from the very beginning.”
Alison Graham
