There’s nothing quite as climactic as contemporarising Aristotelian theory through digital, is there?
Sema, a public sculpture by I+A, engages the universality of the skies in a conversation on divinity and redemption, coupled with Aristotle’s parallel division of the sky into air (wind) and aether (celestial bodies). In Maltese, the language of the country of origin of this piece, Sema means both ‘sky’ and ‘(to) listen’, which this design studio understood as a call to listen to the spiritual and physical elements of nature that have preceded, continued to sustain and will ultimately survive us.
Located in Marsa, Malta, this steel sculpture reimagines the sky as a sort of deity that listens. This spirit is free in form, yet present in essence, as is the perfect geometry that inspired it. At a glance, Sema is a snapshot of an oversized cloth caught in free-moving air, as if a flag for a higher power, and a ring of light that encircles it hints at a setting sun. The result is a 4-metre-high iridescent sculpture made from 1,300 kilograms of stainless steel plates and cladded with 700 hinged reflective acrylic tiles that dance to the wind. Its temperament is passive-kinetic, shimmering and glistening ahead, as vehicles gust through the newest road infrastructure project in the south of the island.
As many civilisations throughout ages and religions turned to the sky to seek divinity and redemption, the careful insertion of Sema in its urban context is a reminder that the everpresent sky is our manna from heaven, home to energy that surges through the air we breathe – (re)sources that have been taken for granted for too long.
The Design
The design process begun with a parametric definition of a cloth, anchored at a point and, subject to gravity and a wind force. The cloth rippled, and at specific moments in time, it was frozen to create several iterations (or moments) of its being. The frozen cloth was computationally sliced into equally distant curves that were given a thickness and depth, transforming them into plates. The plates were framed with a platonic ring, creating the first concept for Sema.
From there onwards, the rationalisation process began – through parametric design, the first attempt at the design of the structure was created. Structural bars were introduced to hold the plates together and an initial ideation of the supporting base. Once the results were out on the analysis of the structural integrity of this first structural model, the model continued to be redefined into the final structural 3D Model.
The Making
The final structural 3D model served as the foundation for numerous fabrication drawings that were shared with the chosen fabricators. Three main trades were involved including steel fabricator, acrylic supplier and lighting installations. The steel fabrication involved three main stages: the laser cutting of the plates, the welding of the plates and structural bars and the assembly on site. The acrylic supply was a rudimental order of 700 copies of one common plate of iridiscent acrylic sheet. The lighting installation included an LED strip that was fixed to the ring.
The plates were laser-cut based on the fabrication drawings provided by I+A and shipped flat-packed to the fabricator for assembly. The entire build was put together in the steel fabricator’s workshop, including the fitting of the acrylic plates. The acrylic plates were manually hung on a tensioned steel cable using D-shackles. Sema was completely pre-assembled in the workshop and installed on site in two parts: the cloth and the ring.
The Studio
I+A is a design studio that through the use of technology, designs and makes beautifully made objects, spaces, and buildings. The studio was established in Malta in 2018 by a group of artists, architects and technologists who, based on the DAMn [Digital Architectural Making now] principle, continuously seek ways and means to evolve the culture of making towards a holistically sustainable approach through digital means, as a true present-day craft.
