Peter Wegner

INSTALLATION (A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE)

I asked myself a simple question: Would it be possible to make a monument to things that hadn’t happened yet?

As an institution, Stanford is focused on change and innovation. You might say the future is their area of expertise. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

I proposed four artworks that together now constitute my campus-wide project, A Brief History of the Future. These epic installations all share the same conceptual underpinning but use different materials to speak in different registers.

MONUMENT TO CHANGE AS IT CHANGES quickly established itself as the campus focal point. Its palette of colors remain in perpetual motion. No two moments alike over the course of an entire day. Students, professors, visiting dignitaries, the occasional celebrity, members of the community–all drop by to view it and take their picture in front of it.

WAYS TO CHANGE (THE ADVERB WALL) is a text-based work in glass, steel and LEDs. Its 300 adverbs are revealed in configurations that constantly change. Their focus is not on any one specific goal, but on the process of attaining it. Another artwork that has gone on to have a much wider following, both online and IRL.

MONUMENT TO THE UNKNOWN VARIABLES gives metaphorical purpose to functional seating. Two sets of benches are dedicated to the mathematical variables X and Y. They occupy a quiet courtyard surrounded by the offices of *quants*–in this case, economics and finance professors. A favorite place to sit and take a quick meeting.

MONUMENT TO THE FUTURE OF DREAMS It's the campus cornerstone, located in the main courtyard and inscribed with my line: DEDICATED TO THE THINGS THAT HAVEN’T HAPPENED YET AND THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DREAM THEM UP. Campus tours invariably conclude here. Every year at graduation, it’s thronged by hopeful graduates, their friends and families, all jockeying for a photo in front of it.