The Kunstwerk voor Flux working party, consisting of the art committee, lecturers and students of Electrical Engineering (EE) and Applied Physics (TN) and other (external) parties involved, selected the design by the Eindhoven Tijs Rooijakkers (40) from four draft designs. He made an iron construction.

Rooijakkers: “I have translated the flow caused by an eddy into an iron line sculpture. It’s going to be six meters wide and seven meters high.” To get some idea; the concrete fist in the pond at the Hoofdgebouw emerges from the water by 3.5 meters. “At Flux everything is huge and angular, so I wanted to create a contrast with an organic shape. What you see is actually a still motion. I’m playing with gravity.”

Gerrit Kroesen, who chairs the art committee, sees a receding helix in it: “There are plenty of references to TN and EE, such as a turbulent vertebra and a coil of copper wire. The triple helix refers to TU/e and its surrounding ecosystem; industry, government and university. Besides, I just think the design is very pretty.”

The work will not be made by Rooijakkers himself, as this requires very special machinery. “I’m having that done by a company which normally constructs rollercoasters. Approximately 51 meters of pipe needs to be bent with a diameter of twenty centimeters and iron that is 1.5 centimeters thick. That is something I can’t do myself. But it indicates how sturdy it must be; it is intended to be there for ever.”

The art work will be positioned on the tiles outside in front of Flux, at the beginning of the Groene Loper. Any direction from which you approach it will present a different view. Rooijakkers calls it a ‘fantastic place’. “I think it’s great that my work was selected. It’s a dream come true, for now my work will be part of the art collection of TU/e and I find that a great honor.”

The artist hopes that he can instill a thought into the TU/e population. “There is a specific reason why the work is called ‘Leap into the deep’. I would like the lecturers and students who walk past it to realize that they will attain the unknown. The unknown is the place where new insights may be gained.”

Intentions are to install the work of art in the spring of 2016. In any case before the twelfth lustrum of TU/e will be celebrated, from April 22 thru 24.