Art Embedded in Architecture : The Future of Art?

Detail, Barry Anderson AtA award winning installation,
Kansas City, NCDFS Building

Kansas City's American Institute of Architecture (AIA) had a great idea and then did it: Art Through Architecture (AtA). New architectural projects may achieve Gold, Silver or Bronze levels of Art Achievement by dedicating a percentage of the construction budget to collecting artworks, commissioning temporary or permanent artworks, and/or including artists on design teams.

Recently the National Center for Drug Free Sport (NCDFS ) has been awarded highest level "Art Achievement" by Art through Architecture (AtA) for commissioning a new, site-specific video installation by Kansas City based artist Barry Anderson as part of a recent architectural renovation project completed by el dorado ,inc. architects. Said Project Architect, Josh Shelton:

"Anderson's video installation introduces an ambient and shifting horizon line, allowing multiple perspectives and vanishing points to appear and re-appear. His work, and our collaborative dialogue surrounding the work, was necessarily spatial. As a result, our team began to understand the new architecture surrounding us in expansive ways."

As the technology grows increasingly sophisticated, we are seeing video installations become embedded in architecture. There seems to be a sweeping trend developing. We will have to wait and see if it has the long-term life of physical art done with the hand or whether it is a passing fad. As few seem to "draw" architecture any more---buildings being designed almost exclusively on computers---it seems part of the zeitgeist that the art in buildings is no longer "drawn" either.