The HeART of Kent State Multi-Cache
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Come and take a stroll through the Kent State University campus and look at some outdoor works by various artists. It is also a trip through time from the first work done in 1970 to one of the newest pieces completed in 2010.
The cache is located at N 41 09.0xx – W 081 20.yyy
xx is aa + c
yyy is b + 895
Your journey begins at the posted coordinates for this cache. They take you to the sign that introduces you to Partially Buried Woodshed, 1970, by Robert Smithson. It is considered by many critics to be a classic piece of modern art.
Note down the answer to the following question—you will need it to calculate the final coordinates: how many lines of text are on the sign, including the Braille? Call this number “aa”.
If you want a close up view of this piece of art, you may walk forward from the sign to the path that leads you into the grove of trees.
Robert Smithson came to Kent State as a visiting artist in January of 1970. He planned to do a mud pour, but it was too cold. He decided instead to take a backhoe and dump a load of dirt on the center beam of a woodshed, partially burying it. The work was intended to slowly go back to the land, illustrating entropy, allowing people to contrast the speed of geological and human time. After the events of May 4 that year, students painted “May 4 Kent 70” on what was left of the structure. It was visible from Summit Street, and the university came to consider it an embarrassment. An arsonist did some damage in 1975, and as bits and pieces fell off over the years, grounds keepers carried them off rather than trying to preserve the work of art. By 1984, only a mound of dirt covered with bushes and other plants remained, along with part of the foundation. The University planted a grove of trees around it to hide it from view.
The site illustrates entropy or randomness, indeed, as students transformed Smithson’s land art into a part of the political landscape, and university officials allowed it to slowly disappear from sight. The University did host a symposium about the site in 2005, and it has a spot on the university's online Sculptures Map, though they list it as "demolished."
Your second stop is at Behind the Brain, 1999, by Brinsley Tyrrell. N 41 09.092 – W 081 20.866
In front of you is a concrete book—note down the answer to the following question—you will need it to calculate the final coordinates: how many people are listed there as Kent State University graduates with the last name Beck? Call this number “b”.
There's a lot to see in this sprawling work of art--on the ground, in the bookshelves, on the benches.
Behind the Brain is the work of a former Kent State School of Art professor. The brain itself is 13 feet tall, there is a plaza beyond lined with bookshelves and a variety of benches carved in stone. According to Kent State University’s website, Tyrell said, "my first idea for it was that we needed to build a wall bank to shut out all the traffic. Eventually that bank became the library of books, and from the books evolved the brain, called The Seed of Inspiration." The plaza contains the knowledge that feeds the brain, resulting in the formation of great ideas. The artist wished to create a space where people could sit and work.
Your third stop is Athleta & The Witnesses, 2010, by Giancarlo Calicchia. N 41 09.009 – W 081 20.926
There is a sign before you—note down the answer to the following question to help you calculate the final coordinates: how many lines of text make up the artist’s quotation below the map of the site’s elements? Call this number “c”.
Italian-born Giancarlo Calicchia sculpted The Witnesses from granite monoliths taken from his land in Madison Township, Lake County. Left behind by retreating glaciers, they have been witnessing the life of the region ever since.
You now have all the information that you need to calculate the final coordinates. It is a magnetic nano--there is room for your initials and the date in the log, roll it up tightly and place it in the lid in order to seal it back up.
CONGRATS TO BRUTTUS ON FTF!!!
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