About the artist
Bruce Ramus is a light artist. Ramus presents his works as compelling platforms for personal and civic expansion, designed to reflect our environment, encourage social engagement and articulate our civic voice.
Ramus recognises that urban design is shifting into non-imposing, integrated spaces that include light as a means of communication, as a way of dematerialising form, of balancing scale and intimacy.
Bruce Ramus founded Ramus Studios to contribute and support this artistic vision.
Material Thinking (co-directors Paul Carter and Edmund Carter) is a public space design studio. Working between architecture, urban design and public art, it specialises in cross-cultural creative collaboration and enjoys a close relationship with the Aboriginal-owned cultural consultancy Nyungar Birdiyia. Recent public art highlights include Passenger (Yagan Square, Perth) and Borders, Signatures and Unfolding Rose (all Springvale cultural precinct, City of Greater Dandenong).
To create the soundscapes for The Pipes, Material Thinking teamed up with independent sound artist Christopher Williams. Further information about the sound sources can be found at absolute rhythm.
Catherine Wood is a composer of this work. Explore more of Catherine Wood's work.
About the artwork
The Pipes are an immersive digital forest of visuals and soundscapes unique to the Prahran environment. Twenty-eight 11-metre tall poles, distributed in four groves around the entrances to Prahran Square, feature pencil-thin panels of high-res LEDs facing towards the centre of the square. Custodians of this magnificent new civic space evoke the elemental forces that have created the place. Slowly evolving visual textures, drawn from the surrounding area and mixed with abstract expressions of light, suggest ancient place memories embedded in the heart of the new, a past inviting us to embrace the future.
A 24-hour content rhythm complements the constantly changing visual moods. You will hear calming scenes of the ocean, wetlands, forest and desert slowly changing in response to the time of day, the season, the weather and even the movement of people passing by. At intervals, you will hear the familiar ‘cooee’ welcoming you to Prahran Square. A moving dialogue between looking and listening, The Pipes transforms the busy hub of Prahran into a gentle space where people can pause, reflect and connect. Every moment presents visitors with a new immersive experience.