By John P. Mello Jr.
Biomimetics is the application of methods and systems found in nature to design better man-made objects—imitating the echo location of bats to create better sonar or radar, for instance, or engineering the hulls of boats to mimic the thick skin of dolphins.
For Brower Hatcher, biomimetics are a unique way to connect public sculptures to their. Hatcher, who is the leader of the creative team at the Mid-Ocean Studio in Providence, closely collaborates with computer scientists, mathematicians and engineers to develop three-dimensional, matrix-based art.
“Hatcher makes sculptures that are a cross between sophisticated puzzles for the mind and visionary architecture,” notes a guide to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at Walker Art Center. Providence Business News spoke with Hatcher about his art and its blend of technology, science and mathematics.
PBN: How did you get involved in biomimetics?
HATCHER: Biomimetic means something that responds to its natural environment in such a way that the form or pattern of the work follows the energy of natural forces.
It puts a new spin on the idea of site-specific. For many years now, there have been art works built with the idea of being related to their site. That’s different than where you just build a piece of studio art and plunk it down somewhere. These are things that are integral to their location. My idea of being integral to the location was to create a work that was diagrammatic of the environmental forces at the site.
PBN: Have you gone beyond the theoretical phase of that idea?
HATCHER: Biomimetics is one of many things that we do. It’s experimental at this point.
Our first serious one was a proposal for Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor. What we did with that is, take the path of the sun and use that data to morph the structure. The reason that we call it biomimetic is because it follows botanical structures as they pattern themselves in natural life.
We’re also planning to put solar cells in the structure and a lighting device consisting of LEDs in an orb. The idea is to create a structure that will absorb energy and also emit energy. It will absorb light during the day and emit light at night.
PBN: Have you tried using data other than solar-path information?
HATCHER: We’re getting into the idea of data-driven structures. There’s a lot of research that’s been done in the scientific community on developing algorithms of the way plants evolve, and other forms in nature, like seaweeds and corals. So we started taking a lot broader range of data. We started taking data from weather buoys out at sea. What’s interesting about them is, you have a constant stream of data – water temperature, humidity, wind force. We began programming those in and they have produced the most interesting structures yet. This is our R&D area. None of them have made into our public art yet.
PBN: How do you get business?
HATCHER: These things are publicly known. You can get where the opportunities are off the Internet. There are literally thousands of them all over the country, all over the world.
When you apply, you send in samples of your work, and if you’re short-listed, they ask you for a proposal. Then I sit down with my computer designer and we develop the proposal.
Very often, I have to go off and make presentations. You have to persuade them that this is the coolest thing they’ve ever seen. Not only that, but it’s going to be an enormous benefit to their city and community. Art these days has become a tool of economic development.
PBN: A tool of economic development?
HATCHER: Yes. We’re doing a project now in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is across the river from Omaha [Nebraska]. It’s kind of the stepchild of Omaha. So they’ve gone to all lengths to use this type of public project to essentially turn the town around and make it a place that everybody wants to come see. Public art these days has become an enormous public draw.
PBN: Some of the names of your sculptures are intriguing: “The Divergence of Things,” “Prophecy of the Ancients.” Where do the names come from?
HATCHER: They’re a poetic exercise. It’s like naming a child: you want a name that’s going to fit that thing. … I take it quite seriously. It’s not necessarily easy.
PBN: You grew up in Atlanta. You’ve been to school in London. You’ve worked in New York City. Why did you settle in Providence?
HATCHER: In my mind, there’s no more ideal place to work than Providence. I feel that Providence is Art Town, USA.
