Ned Kahn began his career in the early 1980’s, creating interactive sculptures of wind, waves and black holes, at the Exploratorium Using simple materials like water, sand and air, these works were more than a celebration of nature: they were inspired by fluid dynamics and other aspects of science. Many works reveal how patterns emerge when flow is present. Rather than static objects, these patterns of behavior are dynamic, recurring themes in nature.

During his residency at the Exploratorium, Ned began to create outdoor artworks that responded to forces in their environment. In recent years, Ned collaborated with architects and designers on a number of large-scale public art projects throughout the world. In many of these projects, he has worked with designers from an early stage, influencing the overall design of the buildings and landscapes, as well as integrating kinetic artworks into the fabric of the built environment. Ned is fascinated with the idea of an artwork becoming a scientific instrument, a detector of phenomena, and blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, science and nature.

Much of Ned’s current work involves energy gathering or saving systems. He is currently fabricating a large rain-gathering sculpture in Singapore; designing a wind-powered lighting system for the Coronado Bridge in San Diego, and engineering a bus-powered fountain for a new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco. Other current projects include an ocean wave powered fountain on a pier in the Los Angeles Harbor and converting five oversized smoke stacks from a decommissioned, historic power plant in Austin, Texas into a series of fog vortex gardens that will cool an outdoor plaza.