There is always grass that pushes itself through the cracks in the sidewalk

Adrian Pijoan was one of the artists recently chosen from CNM Ingenuity’s Advanced IoT program to develop his concept in collaboration with The University of New Mexico’s Architecture 603 course, taught by Alex Webb. His concept, There is always grass that pushes itself through the cracks in the sidewalk, is a large-scale steel sculpture, garden, and web-based AR experience located within the courtyard of The University of New Mexico’s Predock Center for Design + Research.

Working with Alex’s architecture students, Adrian designed the sculpture to be a full scale “future ruin,” a nonspecific architectural structure that exists in a future where human structures have entered a state of dormancy, no longer inhabited by humans. It looks at this idea not through an apocalyptic lens, but a hopeful one, presenting the bones of our built environment as habitat for new forms of life, and as substrate for the growth of new ideas. In its final version the garden planted in and around the sculpture will eventually, over time, overgrow the sculpture itself.

In order to lead the fabrication of the sculpture, Adrian took FUSE’s CNC plasma, powdercoating, and metal shop workshops. The AR piece currently provides a static experience and geolocated environmental data. In a future iteration, the experience will respond to the environmental data. The sculpture is a continuation of a project that Adrian first developed in CNMI’s IoT training a few years ago, using bioelectrical signals from plants to live-generate 3D visuals and environments in Unreal Engine 5.

Individuals contributing to the project include:

• Artist: Adrian Pijoan
• Fabrication + Design Lead: Richard William Stuart
• Fabrication + Design: Sydney Hopkins, Lyvan Medrano, Jordan Sanchez, Chrystal Taliman
• AR Coding Assistance: Jay Rentaria

To see more of Adrian’s work, visit https://www.adrianpijoan.net/.