AO: How did the idea for Mirage begin? Take us through the process.

KP: California is steeped in astonishing geological history, and we responded to that. We had several ideas on the table but discovered quickly which we wanted to develop for Apple’s olive grove: a sculpture made of glass formed from every desert on Earth. Glass is made from liquid sand. I pictured gathering together sand from across Earth’s vast wilderness; and transforming it into a translucent material. Together, Zeller & Moye and I formed a team and developed the artwork’s form. After much experimentation, Mirage developed into curved walls of glass, flowing like desert dunes. From early childhood we understand that sand marks time. Grains of sand form when rocks break down by the weathering of waves, wind, and rain, eroding over millions of years. Deserts are formed through the evaporation of oceans, forming clouds swept inland by winds. I associate sand with transience, and find glass fascinating because it is both solid and liquid: sand and glass exist in liminal states. By working with sand, so ubiquitous across Earth, gathered from every corner of the globe, we wanted to create an experience of being enveloped by Earth’s vast spaces, connected to the elements. Mirage became a series of pure cast glass columns, hovering between ground and sky, made of the raw materials of the Earth. The artwork is dreamlike. It creates a wide open space that is both intimate and enveloping. The colors are contemplative: lime and apple greens, blue-blues and aquamarine-blues, vibrant turquoise through to subtle light tints to sharp clear. Nestled within trees, the sky reflected in the glass, Mirage is a light space, which encourages slowing down. Each bar of glass has its own characteristics, visitors can get lost in time gazing into them. CZ: In 2016 we, the architectural studio Zeller & Moye, formed a team with the artist Katie Paterson to develop and design a walk-in sculpture named Hollow made of all the woods of the world in Bristol, UK. For Mirage we came together once again to develop a walk-in installation. Once the idea was set to transform desert sand into glass we experimented with all sorts of forms and concepts for a space that would fully surround the spectator, a space that one could enter, and become immersed in a world of glass. Soon the choice for solid cast glass crystallised. It is a primal type of glass, a hot liquid poured by hand into a form, as opposed to the contemporary float glass that we see every day around us. IM: After developing many different spatial approaches with cast glass including tall compressed and low widespread structures; fragile entangled compositions; open and fully enclosed spaces; and basic geometrical shapes, we concluded with a simple yet multifaceted form that was possible to manufacture and feasible to build on site. Three-dimensional computer models and physical scale models helped finalise the precise shape and extent of the structure in relation to the surrounding landscape; the urban environment; and likewise to the human scale.

AO: The idea of gathering different contexts and people in one central place, appears to be a consistent thread throughout your work Katie, and even more so important in a piece such as Mirage. What are some of the sensations you hope people will experience while interacting with the artwork?

KP: In previous artworks I’ve brought together all the dead stars across the universe; every solar eclipse; 10,000 tree types; and a compendium of life strung in fossil beads. Similarly, Mirage collapses together the immense and the intimate. Generally my artworks seek to expand our time horizons, to enable us to develop a sense of the ‘overview effect’ where we can see the Earth as a single living system, with humans as just one part of its interconnected web of life. In creating Mirage, Zeller & Moye and I were drawn to the sublimity of desert landscapes; endless spaces which situate us in a wider perspective. California's geology is varied and complex. California formed gradually over a billion years, as a series of small island arcs, and deep-ocean sediments producing deep basins and high mountain ranges. Its oldest rocks date back 1.8 billion years and are found in the Mojave Desert. The desert sands we have collected for Mirage are from the most extraordinary places: mountainous deserts, subtropical, coastal, rain-shadow deserts, volcanic deserts, polar deserts, underwater deserts, and even fossilized deserts dating back millions of years. Sand, so ubiquitous across Earth, is a marker of time. Mirage creates an experience of being enveloped by Earth’s sublime spaces. Each piece of glass is a portal to otherworldly landscapes. Visitors are encouraged to touch the glass. We want those experiencing Mirage to feel the depth of time emanating through the materials. Our hope is that Mirage creates a sensory experience that will ignite the imagination, and connect visitors to the vastness of the Earth and its precious wilderness. IM: We expect guests from all over the world to visit Mirage. Some may try to identify which glass pillars are made of sand from their home desert, others may look out for deserts that they have visited while on vacation. I imagine many personal stories and memories will resurface when looking at the cast glass. Spaces have the power to bring back memories. But rarely can they speak about as many places simultaneously as are represented here in this installation. Mirage brings together people from all over the world. CZ: The individual glass pillars refer to places from all over the planet. And all of them come together in one condensed form in one unique place: Cupertino, California. The playful shape stands out in the urban context of office buildings and street landscapes. Apart from people enjoying the artwork and the various stories about deserts there is a second layer of perception. The glass wall fragments frame a part of the existing park thus turning it into a secluded garden. Visitors have the opportunity to look at their surroundings in a different way; their attention is drawn to its elements such as the trees, plants, birds, insects, the light and the sky.

AO: One thing I particularly love about the piece is how multi-layered it is: at the core is its reflection of the desert landscape, and then the materiality of the sand removed from that context, which then creates the glass columns that make up the artwork. I’m curious to know how all these different pillars informed the artwork’s name?

KP: The desert is a place where human senses can be distorted. A mirage is a type of optical illusion, most common in deserts. The desert sun heats the sand, which heats the air above it. Hot air bends light rays and reflects the sky. These shimmering heat hazes disappear as you approach. The word mirage comes to English via the French (se) mirer, from the Latin mirari, meaning "to look at, to wonder at”. The title captures the experience of the artwork: it is both present and absent, tangible and intangible - hazy, dreamlike, and illusory. CZ: The glass has a natural radiance and creates infinite reflections. Glass distorts views, it reflects and mirrors what is around it. All of these effects happen at the same time. Glass can trick your vision and suggest something that is not - like a mirage. In particular the solid cast glass with its thick transparent mass and textures on its surface make for a wide range of specular effects and reflections. The refraction of light bounces off the cast-in bubbles in the glass creating miniature rainbows. IM: The material glass originates from deserts. It is proposed that the first glass known to mankind was accidentally created by lightning flashes striking desert sand, melting the sand into small pieces of solid transparent consistency. The inventor of the material glass was nature. Glass and deserts are interconnected.

AO: You have both worked together on another project prior to Mirage (Hollow). How did your disciplines and interests come together in the making of this piece?

KP: Our visions are aligned; after working together for years, Zeller & Moye and I have a tacit understanding. That is hard to come by. We share a minimalistic approach, and have a similar drive in our work and approach to detail. I tend to work in ideas, and it works so well to collaborate formalising these often complex, intangible thoughts into real, embodied, physical experiences. Zeller & Moye’s architectural vision and understanding of space, embodiment, scale, light and immersion blends well with the ideas I create, particularly for Mirage. CZ: We share a way of thinking as well as a preference for reduced aesthetics. Our different disciplines complement each other. We approach a project together as one team that oscillates between strategic and systematic thinking, experimental and at times intuitive making. We each work with our own means of expression such as words, drawings, collages, computer models, then at certain intervals come together to exchange and discuss our ideas and drafts before returning to our studios to develop those further. IM: As with our previous project Hollow our starting point for Mirage was to combine art, science, nature and space. To tell a story that would gradually unfold through physical exploration of the space. Both Mirage and Hollow are created as permanent structures within public parks. Both are based on the idea of an outer appearance that is interwoven with the park landscape and an intimate interior offering space for contemplation and focus.

AO: Throughout your practices, there’s a real intertwining of the tangible and intangible, material and immaterial. How do you find a balance between these two worlds? Where are moments of harmony and dissonance found?

CZ: We are drawn to glass as a material. The rich interplay of transparency, reflection and juxtaposition can be used to create illusions and add layers to spaces. Glass can create the perception of being surrounded by nature whilst sitting indoors, it can visually connect but also acoustically cut off. We like to use glass in unusual proportions and sizes like a window that sits uncommonly low above the floor level giving the feeling of being half inside and half outside at the same time. The cast glass in Mirage is glass as we hardly ever see it - in its original form as a solid mass. It is at the opposite end of the material's range compared to the invisible glass of the surrounding architecture. KP: Glass is stone that flows. It is made from liquid sand. We were fascinated by the unfixed nature of glass: it is made from opaque sand, yet it is transparent. Sand grains are not really solids, they are not really liquids. And glass is a liquid, yet it behaves like a solid material. Mirage reflects this fluidity. The glass even has a water-like quality.

AO: What brought you to the shape of Mirage?

IM: With a lovely park landscape of olive trees as a site of intervention our first impulse was to create a structure with minimal impact on the existing vegetation. We aimed to keep all trees and developed the artwork around them in balance with the landscape. The artwork frames a section of the park with a series of curved walls that meander around the olive trees. Gently bent like desert dunes, the walls make visible the aura of each tree that they are playfully curved around. The resulting semi-open spaces of concave and convex shape create niches on both sides of the walls offering protection from street noise and direct sun. The wall fragments have been placed in the park with the flow of people and sight lines inside the park in mind. Last but not least, Mirage's dynamic shapes deliberately contrast with the regular geometries of the surrounding buildings along the street. KP: In developing the form for Mirage, it was important to us to thoroughly investigate the different visitors’ view points when experiencing the artwork: the curved spaces, inside and out, the nooks, the pathways, entrance ways, the vistas, panoramas, the height of the glass, and the relationship of the glass bars to the trees, the grass, and to each other. We wanted to create a balance with the very weighty, pure-cast glass and its inherent lightness and translucency, and for this to translate into the form. It is a journey, meandering from desert-to-desert, the whole planet brought together into this space. There are various vistas in the artwork where colors overlap; a hint of clear glass is glimpsed round a bend of deep greens, creating contrasts. In places the glass seemingly melts into the sky. From the highway, the artwork appears like an apparition.

AO: Why are the glass columns arranged as color gradients?

IM: At one point we considered replicating the geographical positions of the desert sands within the floor plan of Mirage so that individual glass pillars would be placed according to their geographical places on the World map, Instead, we decided to follow another logic of organization, as geography is only one aspect under which the deserts could be looked at. The chemical composition of each desert sand resulted in specific glass colors, a direct expression of the amount of certain substances in the sand such as copper or iron. We wanted to draw attention to these similarities between the sands that may be from opposite ends of the world. The chemical analysis by material scientists at the TU Delft added an element of surprise to the design process. In order to identify the range of colors that we could expect during the actual production of the glass, the scientists cast small glass samples based on the desert sands. It resulted in reams of shades of greens, blues, and aquamarines as well as clear glass. Based on those samples we tested different scenarios of color gradients across the curved walls in drawings on the computer and as scale models before settling on the current gradient design with different centers of greens and blues with the ends of each wall fading off into clear glass. The color gradients refer to the color spectrum of light. CZ: The color palette of the glass pillars matches the surrounding colors; both the green of the park landscape and the blue of the Californian sky are found again in the glass. Like a camouflage effect the glass structure blends seamlessly into its surroundings allowing the artwork to appear and disappear like a mirage in the desert.

AO: What is the relationship to glass and sand?

KP: Glass has always been found in nature. The technology of glassmaking is an ancient one. It has been suggested that the first glass was created by our ancestors about 4000 years ago, by craftspeople in Mesopotamia. Rumor has it that Syrians first discovered glass quite accidentally while cooking in pots placed over fierce fires on desert sand. Ancient glass was shaped by heating it in open molds. The earliest glassworks discovered were excavated in the Nile Delta; they date from around 1250 B.C. Nowadays, silicate glass is the most common form of glass in use, we can see it all around us. And though abundant, desert sands are largely of no use in glass making; desert sand is eroded by wind rather than water, and the grains are too smooth and rounded. Intrigued by this history, and drawn to the elemental nature of wild sand, we looked to ancient methods of glass making to create Mirage.

AO: What did the community involvement look like while sourcing the sand from each location?

KP: Gathering the sand took over a year. We collected various amounts from seventy deserts worldwide, with generous support from hundreds of people from communities across the world. We worked with stakeholders to collect and transport the sand in a sustainable way that was mindful of environmental and social impact. UNESCO was our partner in making a call-out to trusted geologists and geoparks all over the world. Mostly the sand collectors were geologists who practiced mindful sampling in the field to minimize environmental impact. We worked closely with our contacts on the ground to establish suitable locations for the sand collection, taking into consideration permissions, sand quality, access and environment. Our priority was to minimize disturbance to the local ecology; we collected sand from areas with previously disturbed ground or dunes which were well and continually sorted via wind, restoring the sampled area, and restoring dunes to their previous contour to avoid destabilising the slope, so there was no lasting visual impact. We ensured that the sand was sieved so no organic matter was removed from the environment and discussed additional socially respectful practices with local people. The community involvement collecting the sand for Mirage has been incredible. People from all across the world have contributed, from Mongolia to Patagonia; from the salty expanses of Utah, to the vast savannahs of the Kalahari Desert, the Arctic Circle and some of the harshest places on Earth. Together we have carefully gathered sand from high desert plateaux, shrubland biomes, snow covered sandy deserts, coral pink dune fields, deserts that were once ancient oceans, and the sands around active volcanos. Deserts with rugged and varied topography, sandy plains, scattered shrubland, unique rock formations, the oldest and highest deserts in the world. Geologists, scientists, sheep herders, artists, writers, mystics, and Antarctic explorers have all contributed - it’s been a truly global, collaborative and enriching process. Mirage is part of a long tradition of creating artwork with the raw materials of the Earth. Sand is an infinitely expressive medium, and is used widely across geography, cultures, and time. It can be used to tell stories of the past and of the future, and portray the constantly changing present. The intricate sand mandalas of Tibetan Buddhism depict harmony, a view of the universe, and a cosmic map; they are a reconsecration of the Earth and its people. Pitjantjatjara is one of the many languages of the many Aboriginal communities in the region around Uluru in Australia, a natural monument of ancient sandstone. Milpatjunanyi, in the Pitjantjatjara language, means the art of telling stories in the sand. It is a heritage deeply rooted in the land, in journeys, maps, and the dreamtime, in a culture of stories whose narratives are actively interwoven with drawing in the sand.

AO: Geologists and scientists have grappled with key characteristics that decide what a “desert” is, due to their constant movement and adaptation throughout time, as well as factors of location, language etc. After working on this project, how would you define a “desert”?

KP: Deserts are found on every continent and cover about one-fifth of the Earth. Deserts are somewhat anomalous; one thing they have in common is that they are arid, or dry. Geologically, they are defined by a lack of water. There is little water available for plants and other organisms. Some deserts are mountainous, others are dry expanses of rock, sand, or salt flats. And most deserts, far from being empty and lifeless, are home to a variety of plants, animals, and other organisms. Deserts are also home to around 1 billion people—one-sixth of the Earth’s population - whose way of life is dependent on coexisting with the sand. Except in the most extremely hyper-arid regions, people make a way of life in the desert, developing agriculture and communities around the desert margins. We worked with a number of scientists to define the deserts included in Mirage, at first using the Köppen Geiger classification system which broadly looks at temperature and precipitation. Later we opened up to include some semi-arid locales as well. The more we discovered, we broadened the criteria to include polar deserts, underwater deserts, desert islands, ancient fossil deserts and ‘new’ deserts formed by growing desertification. There are so many definitions and the deserts included aim to represent the global desert of the past, present and near future.

AO: Desert landscapes can often be associated with empty and barren lands, but Mirage presents a real life-force to them. What were some of the stories you were hoping to be conveyed through the piece?

KP: We are fascinated by the trans-continental journey of sand. Around a billion sand grains are born around the world every second, and trillions of sand grains move at every moment. Deserts are the ultimate shifting landscapes - in constant change and transformation - crossing countries and continents. Dunes migrate constantly. After being picked up by the wind, sand can travel over incredibly long distances - the particles are light and can remain suspended above the Earth’s surface for hundreds or thousands of miles. Sand from the Sahara is carried by wind as far as the Amazon, where it nourishes the rainforest and helps its plants and trees to thrive. Every sand grain in the world is unique, an individual. Sand grains are micro landscapes, they contain multitudes. For millennia sand has represented numbers too large to grasp, the passage of time, and eternity; at the same time, it is a symbol of things almost too small to see. Within its minuteness a grain of sand encapsulates greater things, it is a metaphor for a grander scale. Sand is a quintessential symbol of impermanence. It is a powerful symbol of origins, and is part of our collective subconscious. In myths from around the world grains of sand are the fundamental components of the Earth’s creation. For Rachel Carson "The sediments are a sort of epic poem of the Earth.” (The Sea Around Us). David Jasper describes “a landscape that both kills and redeems and is absolutely indifferent and pure. It is never and always.” (In The Sacred Desert: Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture). Sand grains reveal clues from the farthest reaches of deep time, close to the Earth’s beginnings. Aeolian processes can be seen in geologic record as long ago as the Precambrian era - billions of years before life formed, a time far before humans existed. So, sand grains can be a means of approaching the concepts of infinity and eternity. The desert has never lost its sense of vastness, its mystery, and its power over the human imagination. The life-force of sand and its endless journeys is something we wanted to convey in Mirage.

AO: I’m curious as to what role language played within the piece, as it pertains to naming the deserts?

KP: The naming of the deserts is an important aspect of the artwork. Deserts are borderless, liminal zones. They span countries, continents, nations, and a great diversity of peoples’ lands and languages. We researched and discussed this with organizations such as Australia’s Indigenous Desert Alliance, and with a team of linguists from SOAS, UCL, who rigorously worked through our lists examining the geo-social and geo-political aspects of naming and how we refer to the desert regions with respect and honor. Many of the translations of desert names are evocative. The name Namib is of Khoekhoegowab origin and translates to "vast place". Gobi Desert, from Mongolian gobi, means “waterless place”. Wadi rum is known as “Valley of the Moon” in Jordan.

AO: What is the relationship of the artwork within its location at Apple Park?

IM: The artwork is set back from the surrounding streets within a densely planted olive grove, like a secret. Seen from within a car on the street it remains a brief blurry vision. When approaching by foot visitors are invited to slow down from the urban pace and their daily routines and enter through one of the three entrances, evoking an effect of discovery. On one hand it is an opportunity for people to contemplate the artwork, on the other hand it allows them to focus their attention on the existing natural context like the trees and plants, the sky and the clouds, the sounds of the wind and the birds that pass by. CZ: In order to appreciate the beauty of the glass without distraction the pillars are cleared of all details so that only the pure glass cylinders are visible. The supporting structure is fully embedded below ground. The glass columns seem to rest on the ground like a rock in the landscape but in fact they are fixed in underground steel cassettes, which sit on a subterranean linear concrete foundation. The whole construction is highly precise but designed to be earthquake resistant at the same time. The pillars have a distance of 15 mm (1/2 inch) between each one of them allowing just enough space that was required to install the heavy elements. Integrated LED lights below the glass illuminate the artwork from within during nighttime.

AO: What were some of the challenges or complexities you encountered while making the pieces?

KP: Foreseeing the technical complexities in creating an artwork at this scale, Zeller & Moye and I formed a team comprising many specialists. Glass engineers and material scientists from the Technical University in Delft ran analysis on the desert sands before they were melted in the foundry. This allowed us to create bespoke ‘recipes’ with the sand - allowing the desert sand to affect the color and texture of the glass, whilst at the same time performing as a stable material, now and into the future. It was certainly a challenge to cast glass at this scale. We were really pleased to discover the glass foundry locally in Oakland who could produce glass on this scale and were willing to experiment with unusual materials going into their oven. John Lewis Glass pour molten glass into molds from the ceiling. No other foundry like this exists. IM: A project like Mirage requires a large team of experts to collectively work together. This project was so special because not only was a new material utilized for the installation, but the source material was also collected specifically for this project from across the world. The project brought together the best in each field, from glass scientists to bespoke glass manufacturers and structural glazing engineers. Designing and planning with a material that you don't know exactly what it will look like posed a challenge for the design approach. The involvement of material scientists testing the raw desert sands for feasibility to produce glass was vital. But still casting glass from desert sands was an ongoing experiment in the workshop, pouring by pouring. Firstly, we decided on using a cylindrical module for all the glass pillars. Secondly, a flexible layout was developed that allowed for various glass color schemes to be accommodated. Since it was unpredictable which colors the numerous sand mixes would produce we employed the idea of arranging the glass in color gradients ensuring all color shades were embedded in a larger narrative. In order to further bring into focus the qualities of the individual cast glass columns we decided to avoid an arrangement that would replicate the geographical desert locations within our floor plan layout but rather display the enormous spectrum and the subtle variations. CZ: The glass pillars seem to rest effortlessly on the grass. What looks like the most basic, straight forward configuration required a complex planning and testing process for its location in a zone with seismic activity. Each glass pillar is fixed below ground to a highly sophisticated anchoring cassette that allows the heavy solid cylinders to stand freely in a precise position cantilevering towards the top. It required careful thinking to find the right dimension for the small gaps between the pillars that would achieve a good balance between solid material and slender openings allowing glimpses; and on the other hand practical installation technique for the heavy but delicate objects. Arranging ultra-heavy glass as a series of free-standing columns in an area with seismic activity was certainly a challenge. Placing the heavy but delicate glass elements close to each other into a precise spot with cranes felt like driving through a china shop trying to not smash anything.

AO: Why did you use a circular profile for the glass pillars?

CZ: It was necessary to develop a module from which the curved walls could be assembled, that was feasible to be produced in cast glass at the same time. A circular profile extruded to a cylinder was the best fit. A pure geometrical form, in fact the most basic architectural element in history: a column. Therefore Mirage could be read as a homage to the fundamentals of architecture. Composed of 448 individually erected columns Mirage may appear closer to an ancient Greek temple or the first man-made structures such as Stonehenge than the architectural expression of today. IM: The height of the pillars of 2 metres (6 feet and 7 inches) relates directly to the scale of the visitor. Slightly taller than the height of a person the pillars visually block off the immediate surroundings and shift the visitor's focus not only to the visual qualities of the translucent walls but also to the earth and sky. Likewise, the walls are porous due to small distances between the pillars resulting in a playful juxtaposition of mirroring reflections and actual images behind the glass.

Do you expect the glass to age or change over time?

CZ: The artwork has been specifically designed for its location and its type of nature and climate. The translucid qualities of the solid glass is enhanced by the strong sunlight. The mostly dry weather and warm temperatures preserve the cast glass throughout the year. IM: Even though the cast glass has distinct textures on its surface we don't expect it to change noticeably with time. Most likely some erosion will occur but on a microscopic scale that is presumably invisible to the eye. The glass colors are inherent to the material and won't change.

What have been the greatest joys and surprises throughout this project?

CZ: It surprised me to see how the glass columns absorb the mood of the sky. The material oscillates between transparent and solid, colorless and colorful, clear and textured. The artwork melts together with the green park landscape and at the same time adds a new material in the form of diaphanous membranes of glass bars that come in a multi-faceted range of colors. For a moment the enclosed space makes you aware of the plants, the trees, the sky and the birds. Depending on the weather Mirage changes. On a clear day the powerful Californian sun charges the glass structure with light and makes it glow from within. The different colors of the glass appear intense and lively. Whereas on a grey day with overcast sky Mirage appears like a cloud with its colors fading to more subtle variations of white, light green and aquamarine. Mirage is designed to work with the weather not against it. The glass stands exposed to the elements changing its character as the weather changes. IM: Once the construction was complete, right after the fence was removed, residents on their evening stroll entered curiously and immediately engaged with their new 'neighbor'. A small group used the space for a brief picnic. That moment seemed to suggest that we achieved the creation of a space that would become an integral part of the local urban life, a place to meet and to come together, for visitors and the local community alike. KP: It was always a surprise and a great moment when the glass columns emerged from the oven, and we could see how the desert sand had affected the glass. The iron levels in the sand had the greatest impact on the coloration - more iron tended to mean darker, more colorful bars. The black sand deserts created the bluest blues. Mirage is never static: it changes continually through sunrise to sunset. This was a great joy to discover. Moody grey clouds cast a particular kind of light and affect the experience of the glass, bright Californian sunlight another. Through early morning light to evening dusk, moonlight and darkness, it is always a new experience. The glass pillars are arranged carefully in a gradient of hues. At times the colors stand out vibrantly, at others they fade away, and the bubbles in the glass shine through. We love that each piece of glass has its own quality; some contain torpedo-like air bubbles, others have very light specks of air like stars.

How do you hope to see the project evolve?

KP: The environment in Apple Park has been a great inspiration whilst we’ve worked through the creation of Mirage. It is a truly innovative and cross-disciplinary place; a melting pot of people, ideas, design, technology, science and aesthetics. Apple is constantly pushing boundaries. A strong influence in Steve Job’s vision and Norman Foster’s design for Apple Park is connection to nature which can be seen throughout the beautiful native planting and vistas to the surrounding landscape inside and out. Mirage feels at home in this environment. We’re excited to see how the project evolves in this context through visitor involvement and experience. The artwork is free and open to everyone; visitors from all over the world, local diverse communities in Cupertino and staff at Apple. We’re looking forward to learning about how children will respond to the piece; hopefully with playfulness and delight. We hope people will gather together in a shared place for reflection, discovery, and inspiration. CZ: We are looking forward to seeing Mirage becoming an integral part of the local community, the public realm and the wider urban fabric of Cupertino. It is an offer to the public to engage with the artwork and to appreciate it as a special place in the neighbourhood where one can rest, relax, or observe the sunset through the glass reflections, sitting under a tree. We hope that people from all over the world will come together in and around Mirage, filling it with life, adding their silhouettes to the perception of the artwork. Despite its very prominent location facing the Apple Visitor Center and the entrance of Apple Park we deliberately didn't design it to stand out as a landmark calling for attention. With its translucency and blending colors Mirage is a rather subtle intervention, a place that wants to be discovered.