Saskia Olde Wolbers’ four-sided video projection transforms the glass top of the 25-metre high former fire brigade tower into a vast aquarium whose sole inhabitant, a pneumatic ‘soft-robot’ octopus, rhythmically taps the glass of this modernist cube.

It resembles the unique Pacific Striped Octopus, which lives at the base of the Escondido River that runs through El Rama, Nicaragua, one of Maastricht’s twin towns. First documented over forty years ago, this intelligent creature has hidden away from science until recently.

Olde Wolbers’ has created a lo-fi ‘animatronic’ version of this elusive cephalopod in her studio, inspired by the latest developments in soft-robotics such as Lewis and Wood’s ‘Octobot’. The tentacle segments are connected via micro tubes to four trumpets. They are powered by air-filled syringe valves played by four operators. Cameras filmed each corner of the aquarium in real-time, creating a realistic yet refracted sense of space in the ‘water filled tower’.

The studio recordings alternate with sonar footage, revealing submerged traces of an industrial past. These sound waves translated to moving image relate to geographical locations where two rivers become one, characteristics of both Maastricht and El Rama.

The installation can be seen from the streets around the former Fire Station, from the 23rd of September 2017 to the 30th of June 2018, every evening from dusk till 23.00 – Capucijnenstraat 21, Maastricht.

Public art

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/21632