The End of Signature is a public art installation by the artist Agnieszka Kurant located beneath the overhang of the E37 building in Kendall Square on the MIT campus. The piece is a neon “signature” that hovers above the plaza below. Its form describes a process generated by the artist’s collaboration with students and advisors from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). The sculpture represents an amalgamation of signatures from scientists and academics at the Institute both past and present.
A machine learning approach was used to create its form based on an “averaged” signature identified by the algorithm from a data set of collected signatures. What appears to be script created by a human hand is actually a computationally-derived summary of a data set that is reflective of MIT’s continued efforts in pushing the boundaries of technology.
The location of the sculpture is subject to complex wind patterns that cause significant loading on its component surfaces. The Signature is cantilevered from the building structure above by a series of round tubes that provide both gravity and lateral support. Due to their structural role in cantilevering the sculpture, these elements became key visual components in the final expression of the installation.
PROJECT TEAM
Artist: Agnieszka Kurant, Fabricator: Parallel Development
