Avalanche
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
The sculpture consists of a 20-foot diameter steel disk covered with a mixture of glass beads and garnet sand is rotated by a large motor. The perimeter of the steel disk is forms a reservoir for the sand mixture. The avalanching sand naturally organizes into complex patterns of waves suggestive of turbulence in liquids. Viewers can control the speed of the rotating disk and thus increase or decrease the activity and turbulence of the avalanche. Completed in 2011.