Input, 2004
Collaboration with Tan Lin, poet
Ohio University, Athens, OH
3.5 acres

Photography: Rose Marie Cromwell

Since Maya Lin was born and raised in Athens and both of her parents were professors at Ohio University, an artwork for the University holds a personal history and connection for her. The placement of the text is based upon rectangular “punch cards” set into the earth. As a junior and senior in high school, the artist studied Cobalt and Fortran computer language at the University, spending many hours programming at the Clippinger Labs. She was a terrible typist and made countless mistakes making the computer data punch cards. Her memory of the hours spent punching out those data input cards at Ohio University has led to the overall shape of this piece. Tan Lin, the writer, poet and brother of Maya Lin, collaborated on the piece by creating its landscape of words. The words chosen correspond to Maya and Tan’s shared memories of the place - they are personal text-images evoking the artists’ past history at Ohio University and in the landscape of Athens. These visual memories, written as a poem, are more universal than one would believe, and resonate with anyone who has spent time in Athens or at the University.