Glass Drawing 2025.Goyang - GMM Research Group

1.- Data

Gallery of 8 display cases (cabinets for electrical installations, heating, communications, .....) next to Meeting Room 2 of the School of Engineering of Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Title: Glass Drawing 2025. Goyang (고양)
Art and Project: Olabe Basogain
Technique: Translucent vinyl on glass
Size: 8 m x 2.1 m
Date: December 2025
Place: Ground Floor, next to Meeting Room 2

2.- Description

A Collaborative Project of Visual Language and Community at the School of Engineering

Glass Drawing 2025. Goyang (고양) is a collective installation developed at the School of Engineering.

The project combines design, engineering, creativity, and participation through the creation of a visual alphabet and the collaborative composition of eight messages made up of a total of 60 characters.

The artwork is installed in the center's display cases, constructed with colored vinyl on glass. Each letter is generated from four geometric pieces of different colors, following a modular system designed specifically for this project from an engineering perspective: coding, combinatorics, formal simplicity, and visual clarity.

The result is a mural that makes visible the power of collaboration and diversity:

each letter has been created by a different person, and each message emerges from many hands working together.

An Alphabet Designed from an Engineering Perspective

Its design responds to coding and synthesis principles inherent in engineering: clear rules, limited combinations, and a structure capable of generating wide variations from minimal elements.

Participation and Community: 60 Characters Assembled by Volunteers

The installation was developed as a process open to the entire university community: students, researchers, faculty, and administrative and service staff.

For the mural's creation, the university community was invited to submit original phrases using a strictly coded format: a maximum of 60 continuous characters, without spaces or punctuation, and written in Basque, Spanish, or English.

The project team then selected the messages, considering their suitability to the format and their ability to express ideas related to knowledge, research, knowledge sharing, collaboration, innovation, or future vision.

Finally, an open participation phase was held, in which community members could collaborate directly on installing the vinyl characters, helping to bring the artwork to life and becoming active participants in the collective creative process.

Each collaborator assembled several letters of their assigned message according to the alphabet, following the four geometric shapes corresponding to each letter, and choosing the orientation of the four colors without repeating any within the grid.

The chosen messages were integrated into the school's glass wall, where they acquired visual form through the project's modular alphabet.

The final chromatic diversity reflects the diversity of the community that made it possible.

The 8 messages created by the community

The eight phrases selected and collectively designed are:

Ikaskuntza bidea, ikerkuntza dirdira, ta irakaskuntza guztiaren muina.
That first stroke created an instrument; we made science, we are human.
Da Vinci, Archimedes, Newton, Lovelace, Curie, Faraday, Gauss, Bohr, Fourier.
With enthusiasm, research, and work, we shape future ideas.
Science, women, leadership, Ehuterpe; movement, innovation, togetherness.
Female leadership drives engineering with empathy, rigor, and courage.
It is the essence of social development, but it is always a shared endeavor.
Teamwork transforms isolated ideas into tangible results.

Each phrase occupies an entire display case and constitutes an autonomous piece within the whole.

A mural of light, color, dialogue, and shared construction.

The installation is made on glass, allowing ambient light to pass through the letters and create visual variations depending on the time of day and the viewer's position.

It is a communication module, but also an aesthetic and social experience.

Glass Drawing 2025. Goyang (고양) highlights an essential value of engineering and university learning: knowledge is built by many hands, many voices, and many perspectives.

Once the installation is complete, the gallery becomes a space for reflection and dialogue surrounding the content of the selected messages. Its arrangement invites visitors to pause, observe, and read attentively, fostering a thoughtful engagement with the ideas that shape university life and the value of knowledge as a shared asset.

This environment aims to encourage conversations about research, creativity, knowledge sharing, and collaboration, becoming a place where people can think together and forge new connections based on the displayed texts.

Each contribution added to the wall thus becomes part of a collective visual language, an expression of the open, participatory, and pluralistic spirit that characterizes our School.

Design of a Modular and Geometric Alphabet

An alphabet designed from an engineering perspective. The proposed alphabet uses the following for each letter:

a four-quadrant system
a set of four basic geometric shapes: square, rectangle, quarter circle, and semi-square-circle.

Its design adheres to engineering principles of coding and synthesis: clear rules, limited combinations, and a structure capable of generating extensive variations from minimal elements.
It is a visual language that invites exploration of how simple systems can produce complex meanings.

3. 60-Character Messages

Format of the eight messages organized in 12 rows by 5 columns.

The eight messages will be written in Roman script, using capital letters, without spaces or punctuation. It is a continuous text that is deciphered visually, using rhythmic reading.