{"id":24118,"date":"2023-10-31T11:07:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T15:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/industrial-design\/2023\/10\/31\/nc-state-alum-matt-mcconnells-evolution-field-featured-in-brickyard\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T22:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T02:09:11","slug":"nc-state-alum-matt-mcconnells-evolution-field-featured-in-brickyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/industrial-design\/2023\/10\/31\/nc-state-alum-matt-mcconnells-evolution-field-featured-in-brickyard\/","title":{"rendered":"NC State Alum Matt McConnell’s ‘Evolution Field’ Featured in Brickyard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

NC State students, faculty and staff and interested passersby on Hillsborough Street will notice a mesmerizing blend of light and color in the Brickyard over the next three months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three sets of three panels of interwoven orange, green and purple curved lines make up a smaller scale version of Raleigh sculptor and NC State alum Matt McConnell\u2019s<\/a> \u201cEvolution Field,\u201d which will be on display near Bostian Hall until February, as a process that began in January has finally reached its desired outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to come back and bring something to the school,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cThe college I attended is on the other side of campus, and it was uncommon for me to visit this side of campus when I was in school. One of the things that I like about this is that, if people learn that it\u2019s here, it\u2019ll draw them across campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three stakeholder groups \u2013 the Friends of the Libraries, Arts NC State and Inter-Residence Council, came together to bring the sculpture to NC State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a phenomenal thing,\u201d said Project Manager Mike Riha. \u201cIt\u2019s a phenomenal display. It\u2019s the neatest, most interactive thing. It wouldn\u2019t have taken place if not for the willingness and the collaboration of the stakeholder groups to come together and make this thing a reality. In my role as a project manager, that is often the biggest hurdle, and they were on board, engaged and had it not been for that, this thing probably would have never come to fruition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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McConnell<\/a>, who graduated from NC State\u2019s College of Design in 1995 and focused on architecture and industrial design, explained that the idea for the piece started coming together five years ago after he traveled to an event in the United Arab Emirates and got to meet with numerous artists from different countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConnell wanted to feature a new piece at Burning Man, the annual art celebration in the Nevada desert. When he asked the Burning Man Foundation for a grant, they suggested that he first come to the event and learn more about it, so he did, learning more about the nature of people interacting with artwork and working to create a more dynamic piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvolution Field\u201d is about the blending of color, energy and light, McConnell explained. The piece is especially beautiful and fascinating at night when its electric lights shine in the dark, and the colors on the panels shift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For McConnell, that blending of energy represents a group of people coming together and ideas and beliefs blending together and changing \u2013 precisely what you\u2019d see on a college campus such as NC State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got thousands and thousands of people, and they\u2019re all mixing together in different ways and in different places,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cThe art represents the idea of this mix of energy and can be represented by people or their attitudes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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“You\u2019ve got thousands and thousands of people, and they\u2019re all mixing together in different ways and in different places.”<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After the COVID-19 pandemic put the project on pause in 2020, McConnell was able to feature his piece at Burning Man in 2022, after which NC State approached him about featuring it on campus, and McConnell now has two model versions of the sculpture on display \u2013 the one in Raleigh and one in Aspen, Colorado. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea to bring it to campus started in January of 2023 when NC State Senior Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Greg Raschke saw a video of the piece at Burning Man and asked about bringing it to NC State.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n