Return to CODAmagazine

Hypersonic is a collaborative studio in Brooklyn, NY. We create groundbreaking new media sculptures and physical installations. Hypersonic draws inspiration from the natural world around us employing art, design, engineering, and craftsmanship as a set of tools to create works that inspire wonder. Our work reflects the culture, architecture, and movement of the local environment.

See Bill's profile on CODAworx

My Projects

  • Between the Currents

    Between the Currents is a kinetic sculpture commissioned by Weber State University for their new Noorda Engineering, Science and Technology building. The sculpture is inspired by the invisible forces of nature that are acting all around us. As in nature, beauty emerges when diverse forces converge, blooming into unexpected forms of color and shape. Animations of motion are constantly evolving on the sculpture, and are based on equations that are used to model forces in nature. These forces flow in waves. Similar behaviors may be found in electromagnetism, fluids dynamics, material science, gravity, and beyond - often obeying the same fundamental equations. We've taken a selection of these equations and remapped them across this surface to represent the beauty that appears in nature.

    2023 CODAawards Entry 2023 CODAawards Top 100

  • Breaking Wave

    Breaking Wave is an anamorphic kinetic sculpture created for Biogen's new headquarters in Cambridge, MA. Breaking Wave tells the story of the search for patterns, and the surprising results that come by changing our point of view. 804 suspended spheres move in a wave-like formation. When the wave crests and breaks, the balls hover momentarily in a cloud. From almost anywhere in the room, this cloud is purely chaotic, but step into one of two hidden spots, and this apparent chaos shows a hidden pattern. From the first, a labyrinth hints at the search for knowledge, and from the second, a Fibonacci spiral inspired flower reminds us of the natural order and patterns found in nature. Breaking Wave is made of wood, steel, stainless steel, plastic, and a motor. It is 8' x 8' x 16'.

  • Constellation Garden

    The Constellation Garden is a remembrance memorial dedicated to the lives of Riley Howell, Reed Parlier, and all those affected by the terrible events of April 30th, 2019 at UNC-Charlotte. The memorial includes an interactive sculpture made of large steel arcs grounded with six pillars, one to represent each person killed and wounded. The crisscrossing arcs rise 25’ above a white granite plaza, creating a voluminous ceiling that hovers above a circular gathering space embraced by planted landforms and an arc of trees, flowers, and plants. A web of thin cables is anchored by the arcs and holds an array of lights, suspended against the sky. These lights are frozen in a map of the constellations of stars in the night sky on April 30, 2019, at a moment when time stopped for all of those affected by this tragedy. Light ripples quietly and slowly across the sculpture, representing the ever-present constellation of trauma, pain, and loss caused by gun violence.

    2023 CODAawards Entry 2024 CODAawards Entry 2024 CODAawards Top 100

  • Constructive Interference

    Constructive Interference is a sculpture designed to engage members of the OSU community in active learning, by presenting a mystery to their senses: a static object that appears, impossibly, to be moving. The sculpture is a metaphor for how we exchange knowledge, how synthesis of apparently different fields widens our perspective, and how investigation deepens our understanding of the reality in which we live. Constructive Interference is composed of two large patterned sheets of steel, designed to create a rapidly changing visual interference effect as viewers pass by. The dimensions are 30' wide and 17' high.

  • Deconstructed

    Deconstructed is a kinetic sculpture commissioned by Property Markets Group (PMG) for the Sales Center lobby of their new 100-story Waldorf Astoria tower development in Miami, Florida. Hypersonic worked with the design firm Second Story to develop the concept for the PMG team. 55 hand-made quadrilateral polished elements move in disparate hanging rhythms, coming together to form the outline of a 3-dimensional cube. Hanging in the sales-center lobby for this new super-tall skyscraper development in Miami, the sculpture's form references the series of stacked cube forms that make up architect Carlos Ott's skyscraper's design. Conceptually, Deconstructed references the many pieces that come together in different ways and times to create a magical place.

  • Kinetic Brick Wall

    This is the Kinetic Brick Wall. Animations play out across it’s 20’ wide x 15’ tall surface. As the wall’s 400 bricks dynamically shift and synchronize with projected video content, the wall comes alive with motion, light, and sound.

  • Life of Tree

    Life of Tree is a permanent kinetic sculpture in the lobby of the Crocker Science Building at the University of Utah. It is 30' tall, 15' wide, and 15' deep. It weighs approximately 1,200 lbs. It is made of steel, aluminum, springs, 3d printed plastic, a servo motor, and computer animation code.

    2020-project

  • Seed and Signal

    Seed and Signal is a permanent kinetic sculpture. It is 6' wide, 4' tall, and 1' deep. It weighs 400 lbs. It is made of pcv plastic, wood, paint, motors, computer code

  • Sky Wave

    Sky Wave is a kinetic sculpture for Royal Caribbean’s newest cruise ship, Ovation of the Seas. It is the signature artwork, placed above the Royal Esplanade in the ship’s main public gallery. The 99 gleaming red petals of Sky Wave sway rhythmically with a choreography of evolving generative motions. The movements of bird feathers and flocks, schools of fish, and sea anemones inspired these patterns. Sky Wave reminds passengers of the interactions between the forces of nature and beauty of movement, while giving people a moment of wonder and awe. Sky Wave is made of foam, aluminum, and motors. It is approximately 16' x 16' x 8'

  • Tidelines

    Tidelines is a kinetic sculpture commissioned by the Museum of Science in Boston, MA for their new Engineering Design Workshop exhibit. 16 origami structures form an overlapping field of motion and light, inspired by the lily pads on the tidal estuary underneath the Museum and the clouds in the skies above it. The sculpture creates a unified choreography of motion and light, ever changing and evolving with time. Each origami element is driven by two independently controlled motors, creating a body that can expand to create a larger volume, and collapse to be nearly invisible against the ceiling. Custom lighting makes the Tyvek structures glow with internal color. The system is run by custom software that drives both the motors and lighting. Tidelines serves as the centerpiece for an exhibit that inspires children and families to explore the worlds of science, art, and engineering.

Return to CODAmagazine

© 2020 CODAworx    All Rights Reserved