#Hash
#Hash is a temporary art installation concept for the Winter Stations programme on Woodbine Beach on Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada. The annual programme welcomes entries to incorporate existing lifeguard towers for the winter season.
In response to the brief’s theme of human resilience, Studio Merlin proposed a vibrant modular 3D hashtag shaped installation, highlighting the important role the symbol plays within data organisation and technology in today’s world.
Throughout the Covid pandemic, as societies locked down and the main form of communication became digital, the hashtag enabled structured sharing, learning and connection for many people.
The hashtag’s use in modern communication represents an ability to thrive in creating communities, movements and support networks inclusively across the world.
Much like social media, the Hashtag installation relies upon its connections for structural integrity. As a series of small and easily assembled interlocking modules with strategic mechanical fixings to aid rigidity, the symmetrical form sits balanced, creating shadow play on the beach with trickles of light filtering through its perforations, which also reduce weight and vulnerability to wind.
Modules are designed optimally to fit the 3 component types onto a 2.4 x 1.2m sheet, reduce material wastage and ease packing and transportation. Constructed module by module around the existing lifeguard tower and with sandbags at each ‘foot’ acting as ballast the installation becomes stronger as it is built, counterbalancing itself and becoming more rigid with each interlocking connection.
Like the symbol, the centre of the hashtag structure has voids, framing views out on all sides for would-be lifeguards and putting them at the centre of the hashtag.
At a distance, the hashtag form is instantly recognisable. Up close, the craft of module connections demonstrates efficient fabrication. Digitally, the hashtag is prime for distribution.