Chronosynthesis : a site-specific sculpture installed at Windward Community College, Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi

Abstract

The title for my thesis exhibition, Chronosynthesis, is a word I invented to be expressive of the various aspects of the sculpture. Chronos refers to time, personified by the ancient Greeks as the all powerful but fallible god. I saw the different aspects of the sculpture as being related through how we, as humans, mark time as we move through it. The sculpture then became an abstracted structural reference to charting life's journeys, as well as marking cycles of beginning and ending, departure and arrival, and landmarks necessary for navigation and orientation. The goal I set was to create an artwork that synthesized geometrically patterned structures with markers specific to the chosen site, integrating ideas of time and navigation. To paraphrase Kevin Lynch, a noted urban designer from Boston, landmarks and visual markers are closely allied with the understanding of a man-made environment (such as the WCC campus) and a corollary sense of psychological sustenance to its inhabitants, including a sense of ownership and belonging, provided that the marker is memorable. (Visual Analysis)