Artifex RDE

The Stuart Collection @ UCSD is a prestigious art collection which brings world renowned artists in to explore concepts in a manner outside their normal idiom. Mark Bradford is a contemporary African-American artist. Working in a wide-ranging conceptual practice, he best known for his multimedia abstract paintings whose laborious surfaces hint at the artist’s excavation of emotional and political terrain. He recently represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. He was approached by The Stuart Collection and theorized a 190’ pole, terminated with a lighting luminaire that blinks “What hath God wrought” in Morse code.

The plaque installed at the base of the piece explains thus:

Samuel Morse and his partner Alfred Vail tested the first forty-mile telegraph line, between Washington and Baltimore, on May 24, 1844. In most accounts, a young woman provided the first message they sent: WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT The long-distance application of the telegraph and Morse code marked the beginning of a new era of communication, where information can travel instantaneously. All telephone, internet and social networks that exist around the world today began with two points: The supreme court chamber in Washington, and the Mount Clair railway depot in Baltimore.

Artifex RDE was called upon to provide design, engineering, and manufacturing expertise to bring “What hath God wrought” to life.

concept proposal

Artifex RDE was approached with the stark question of “How do we blink with light, ‘What hath God wrought’ at the top of a 190’ pole?” The complications to the apparent simplicity of this question are, it must work for 10 years minimum without maintenance, it must be bright enough to compete visually with the sun, and should be manufacturable, customizable, and all for a reasonable price.

Feature 2

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Feature 3

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