When I lived downtown Chicago and a few blocks away from the park, I used to walk past this all the time. It just looked like a giant jellybean to me that was reflective. In any event I found this gem at interesting facts and wanted to share about this icon in Chicago, IL:
"Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois.
It is Kapoor’s first public outdoor work in the United States, and is the work by which he is best known in the country according to the Financial Times.
The sculpture was selected during a design competition. After Kapoor’s design was chosen, numerous technological concerns regarding the design’s construction and assembly arose, in addition to concerns regarding the sculpture’s upkeep and maintenance. Various experts were consulted, some of whom believed the design could not be implemented.
Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed The Bean because of its bean-like shape.
It was created by using computer technology to cut into precise shapes 168 giant stainless steel plates, which were pieced together like a puzzle and welded shut; its highly polished exterior has no visible seams.
The cost for the piece was first estimated at $6 million; this had escalated to $11.5 million by the time the park opened in 2004, with the final figure standing at $23 million in 2006. No public funds were involved; all funding came from donations from individuals and corporations.
Three-quarters of the sculpture’s external surface reflects the sky and the name refers to it acting as a type of gate that helps bridge the space between the sky and the viewer.
Kapoor was inspired by liquid mercury and the sculpture was given a formal name once fully assembled.
Cloud Gate measures 10 by 20 by 13 meters (33 by 66 by 42 feet), and weighs 100 tonns (110 US tons).
Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 3.7-meter (12-foot) high arch.
On the underside is the “omphalos” (Greek for “navel”), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections.
Cloud Gate aims to evoke immateriality and the spiritual through the shine and reflectivity of its surface. The sculpture’s design is also very peculiar and seeks to create a sense of duality: sky-earth, internal-external and reality-reflection. The convex portion opens up to the sky and reflects the universe, while the concave portion (underside) invites the visitors and multiplies their reflections. Multiple reflections move in a fluid manner, and create the illusion of solid being transformed into fluid, thus intensifying the experience.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared the day of the sculpture’s dedication, May 15, 2006, to be “Cloud Gate Day”.
Time describes the piece as an essential photo opportunity, and more of a destination than a work of art.
The New York Times writes that it is both a “tourist magnet” and an “extraordinary art object”, while USA Today refers to the sculpture as a monumental abstract work.
Chicago art critic Edward Lifson considers Cloud Gate to be among the greatest pieces of public art in the world.
Cloud Gate now serves as a famous symbol of Chicago and is one of the city’s most photographed attractions.
It is now a fixture on many souvenirs such as postcards, sweatshirts, and posters.
Kapoor’s contract states that the constructed piece should be expected to survive for 1,000 years.
The lower 1.8 meters (6 feet) of the sculpture’s surface is wiped down twice a day by hand using a surface cleaning solvent that gets rid of fingerprints, oiliness, dew streaks and other dirt that accumulates on the Cloud Gate which is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors every day.
In addition, the entire sculpture is cleaned and washed twice a year with 150 liters (40 US gallons) of liquid detergent. This process calls for the use of specialized equipment and safety features.
A notable February 2009 rare incident saw two names etched in letters about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) tall on the northeast side of the curved sculpture. The graffiti was removed by the same firm that did the original polishing.
A restaurant called Tavern at the Park, off the corner of Michigan Ave and Randolph St, directly north of Millennium Park, serves a Cloud Gate cocktail. However, it’s not for those strapped for cash. The martini costs $175, and it’s made with Grey Goose La Poire vodka, homemade sour mix, pineapple juice, a splash of champagne and presented on a silver tray with a glass rimmed in edible silver. However, the expense comes not from the ingredients, but the silver Cloud Gate Tiffany’s charm necklace it’s adorned with.
In 2015, a sculpture similar to Cloud Gate was reported in Karamay, China at the site of an oil discovery, which according to Eduardo Peñalver, the Dean of Cornell Law School, “very probably” is a copyright infringement against Cloud Gate. Though designed to resemble an oil bubble, Kapoor hoped that legal action would be taken against what he termed a Chinese knockoff. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was less concerned and said that it was a flattering imitation.
Cloud Gate appeared in several films including The Break-Up, Source Code, Transformers: Age of Extinction.
It also appears in the video to “Homecoming”, a song by Chicago native Kanye West, featuring Chris Martin of the band Coldplay."
Reference: http://justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-cloud-gate/
I have lost a lot of faith with the Medical Community and the Governments over the last several years, but there are a few good things that can raise above the corruption and the pushing of drugs a new approach to heal people. The following is from www.gaia.com and written by Hunter Parsons that does not involve any drug or pushing an ineffective so called vaccine that the drug company is not held accountable in any way but they use sound! The use of sound can regrow bone tissue! Here is the story:
"The future of regenerative medicine could be found within sound healing by regrowing bone cells with sound waves.
The use of sound as a healing modality has an ancient tradition all over the world. The ancient Greeks used sound to cure mental disorders; Australian Aborigines reportedly use the didgeridoo to heal; and Tibetan or Himalayan singing bowls were, and still are, used for spiritual healing ceremonies.
Recently, a study showed an hour-long sound bowl meditation reduced anger, fatigue, anxiety, and ...
Not a fan of a Defense Agency studying Anti-Gravity and other Exotic Tech, but if the commercial world and make this technology cheap that will change our world yet again. The following is about three minute read and from www.gaia.com. The below was written by Hunter Parsons:
"Wormholes, invisibility cloaks, and anti-gravity — it’s not science fiction, it’s just some of the exotic things the U.S. government has been researching.
A massive document dump by the Defense Intelligence Agency shows some of the wild research projects the United States government was, at least, funding through the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program known as AATIP.
And another lesser-known entity called the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program or AAWSAP
The Defense Intelligence Agency has recently released a large number of documents to different news outlets and individuals who have filed Freedom of Information Act requests.
Of particular interest are some 1,600 pages released to Vice News, which ...
As our technology gets better we are discovering more about the history of mankind and pushing the timeline back further and further. The following article is from www.gaia.com and written by Michael Chary that discusses this new find that changes the historical timeline:
"Over the past decade, there have been a number of archeological revelations pushing back the timeline of human evolution and our ancient ancestors’ various diasporas. Initially, these discoveries elicit some resistance as archeologists bemoan the daunting prospect of rewriting the history books, though once enough evidence is presented to established institutions, a new chronology becomes accepted.
But this really only pertains to the era of human development that predates civilization — the epochs of our past in which we were merely hunter-gatherers and nomads roaming the savannahs. Try challenging the consensus timeline of human civilization and it’s likely you’ll be met with derision and rigidity.
Conversely, someone of an alternative...
Not sure if you have heard of a show on YouTube called "The Why Files". If not you should check it out it is interesting and has some humor with it on different subjects. Last weeks was on a different theory how the Universe works and how main stream Science is attempting to shut it down like is always seems to do if it goes aguest some special interest. Today it is akin to what happened to those who questioned the Earth was the Center of the Universe that main stream so called Science all believed during the Renaissance period, They called any theory that the Earth was not the Center of the Universe misinformation. Does this sound familiar today? People laughed and mocked people like Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georg Purbach as crack-pots, conspiracy theorists, nut-jobs and they were suppressed and even imprisoned for their radical thoughts and observations. Again it sounds like today in so many ways. In any event this is a good one to ponder and see even if a bad idea ...
Seemingly chaotic systems like the weather and the financial markets are governed by the laws of chaos theory.
We all have heard about chaos theory, but if you have not or have forgotten what chaos theory is well here you go from interestingengineering.com:
"Chaos theory deals with dynamic systems, which are highly sensitive to initial conditions, making it almost impossible to track the resulting unpredictable behavior. Chaos theory seeks to find patterns in systems that appear random, such as weather, fluid turbulence, and the stock market.
Since the smallest of changes can lead to vastly different outcomes, the long-term behavior of chaotic systems is difficult to predict despite their inherently deterministic nature.
As Edward Lorenz, who first proposed what became commonly known as the Butterfly Effect, eloquently said, "Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.""
You may have heard the term about chaos theory as a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil,...
I for one have lost trust in Medical Doctors due to COVID and reflection that they seem to push pills for everything and untested so called vaccines that is using a unproven technology because the Government and the Medical Boards of the State told them to. There are a very few exceptions. Thus they do not address the key problem just prescribe more and more pills to keep you alive an sick longer for them and Big Phama to profit from you. Will AI do any better? Well that depends on what was used for the training of AI. If it also pushes pills and vaccines without question then you have the same problems noted above. However, if the AI Training includes all possible forms of treatment and they zero in on the right issues for the true problem then there is possibilities they would be way better than most of the current Medical Doctors today.
The following is from an article from interestingengineering.com and written by Paul Ratner:
"A new study looks at how accurately AI can diagnose patients. We interview the researcher, who weighs in on AI's role ...