Chroma Cilium: A Living and Breathing Underwater Forest at the US Bank Tower

StandardVision recently created a transformative and site specific 3D video art installation for the curved, immersive 8K video wall at the US Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles. Chroma Cilium is a vibrant work inspired by natural flora and the palette of the underwater world that transforms the US Bank Tower lobby display into an otherworldly living wall.

Drawing on naturally occurring patterns within nature, StandardVision investigated conceptual scale transformation of organic elements in order to transport viewers into a stimulating and immersive environment. Chroma Cilium explores the deeper connection between our organic origins and how they influence our psychological attraction to visual stimuli created by modern technology. 

Using a hair simulation network in the 3D program Houdini, StandardVision's in-house team went back and forth to get the perfect texture and firmness for the cilia. The creative team also experimented with ways of introducing new colors into the piece over time, eventually finding that they could inject spots of color from the roots of the cilia that grow out to the surface, similar to how natural hair color grows back in. In the end, the team selected a range of bright colors that could be injected at random points in the field of cilia to keep the palette constantly evolving.

Chroma Cilium is currently on display at the curved immersive lobby screen at the US Bank Tower in downtown LA.