Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks by abirkill

Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks

'Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks' is a sculpture by Janet Echelman that has been installed outside the Vancouver Convention Centre for the duration of TED2014.

The 745 foot long net is suspended above the area between the Convention Centre and Canada Place, and in a collaboration with Google, is lit by projectors that are controlled by the smartphones of visitors.

The piece is amazing to look at, and is impressively large, even more so given that it's only on display for a week.

Tonight, it appeared that quite literally every photographer in Vancouver had turned out to photograph the sculpture, and you could barely move for tripods, so getting an uncluttered shot was a challenge! I wanted to show the sculpture in the context of the city around it, so I photographed this from the north side of the sculpture, looking at the downtown buildings beyond.

The red lighting of the convention centre on the right made a nice contrast to the blue-purple of the sculpture, so I took this 2 row panorama to allow me to capture that, as well as the railing leading into the photo.
The leading lines are perfect as is the sculpyure itself. Faved of course
March 21st, 2014  
Wonderful capture of this installation, it is hard to appreciate the size of it until you compare it to the surrounding buildings.

Fantastic colours and details as always. Fav
March 21st, 2014  
This city scene is just breathtaking and love how you captured the lighting, reflections and that interesting sculpture. Fav!
March 21st, 2014  
I envy you. Absolutely, love TED. Great photo.
March 21st, 2014  
Wonderful cityscape. Beautiful lights and reflections and amazing sculpture. Fav!
March 21st, 2014  
Fabulous lighting.
March 21st, 2014  
Pea
Wow, the lights are amazing. Fav!
March 21st, 2014  
Great colors, leading lines and reflections. Gorgeous as always!
March 21st, 2014  
Yet another awesome night capture. FAV
March 21st, 2014  
Love this. Wonderful shot. Fav!
March 21st, 2014  
what a fantastic shot
March 21st, 2014  
What a fantastic image. Amazing sculpture ...will it be moved to another location? Such a shame that it will be such a short lived event. I thought it was Northern Lights gone mad at first. Just a spectacular image and great job getting an "uncluttered" shot. Super FAV
March 21st, 2014  
What a cool sculpture! That conference is a big deal...the news people keep going on about it! You've photographed it beautifully!
March 21st, 2014  
beautiful
March 21st, 2014  
Wow ! Love the colors.
March 21st, 2014  
Awesome shot!
March 21st, 2014  
Alexis. I love her work! Have you seen her TedTalk about her creative process? I used that talk in my online Open Ed course I designed for English composition and how to reflect on process for writing portfolios. Stunning sot as always!! Fav.
March 21st, 2014  
stunning!
March 21st, 2014  
This is stunning, sculpture and picture. Huge fav!
March 21st, 2014  
wonderful pic
March 21st, 2014  
@eyesmile Thank you! As far as I'm aware it's just going to be displayed in Vancouver this week, it's not going on tour. It really is stunning, and really fits into the space -- I wish they'd make it a permanent fixture.

@kwind Thank you! It's a great thing for Vancouver to host. There's so many interesting talks, and while I'd love to go in person, it's great that they're all available to view online free of charge.

@darylo Thanks! I have, yes, she's a great speaker (as is just about everyone at TED!) There's a brief video on this installation on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjTmG-TBHQ
March 21st, 2014  
Just another fav from me. Wonderful.
March 22nd, 2014  
fabulous composition and excellent PP
March 22nd, 2014  
Amazing shot of an amazing sculpture.
March 22nd, 2014  
Spectacular!
March 22nd, 2014  
Great shot! The net looks cool!
March 27th, 2014  
Alexis, your compositions are always so interesting to me as you make such effective use of line, curve and shape to add interest and dimension to your shots. I am also intrigued with your ability to nail the lighting with narry one blown out light to be seen. Impressive and a fav.
April 1st, 2014  
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