Cicadence is a dazzling kinetic interactive artwork; designed to engage and serve as a landmark both day and night. Cicadas can be found all over the world and are therefore familiar to almost anyone visiting the convention center. The way cicadas emerge and come together with their brood on specific timelines serves as a metaphor to the way people come to the convention center from all over the world to congregate over shared interests. Visually, the delicate structure of the wings against the alien exoskeleton body are a compelling combination.

Overview: The sculpture consists of an abstracted tree branch base with the bug perched on top. Overall dimensions are 12’ wide wingtip to wingtip and 12.5’ tall. The wings move up and down, powered by a hand crank located in the sculpture base. The cicada body is hand sculpted from flat-patterned steel, and gaps between the pieces allow internal LED lighting to skim the surfaces and cast interesting shadows at night. The wings have a veining pattern cut out of sheet steel.

The Mechanics: There is a wheel to spin on the base that anyone can use to crank the wings into motion. The outside wheel is connected to an internal push rod that is attached to the wings. Once the person has stopped spinning the wheel, the wings continue moving! This action is similar to the way a pedal works on a geared bicycle-the wheels can still move while the pedals have stopped.