College of Engineering
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Search Close Search
Toggle Menu
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

The Secrets of Memory/Echo/Passage

 The Memory/Echo/Passage is one of the 2,500 public works of art that make up the “Art on Campus Collection.”  Pieces in this collection are located across campus in buildings, courtyards, open spaces, and classrooms. 

The art spreading across ISU’s campus is partly due to the Iowa “Art in State Building Law,” which was enacted in 1979. The law, which was repealed in 2017, required that one-half of 1 percent of a public building project’s construction cost be used for public arts.

The Memory/Echo/Passage is an original artwork commissioned for the dedication of the 1994 edition to Sweeney Hall. It explores and combines the substantive elements of science and arts into a holistic expression of human activity. The piece was created by Lita Albuquerque and is made up of three elements:

  • The first is a mural located outside the west entrance to Sweeney Hall consisting of a flask with the word “memory” above it and a ring with the words, “(re) combine, (re) purpose, (re) structure and (re) sequence” around it.
  • The second element is a long, narrow hallway just inside the main entrance of Sweeny Hall.
  • The third element, located at the end of the second element, repeats the flask and circle motif in gold leaf on a gray slate wall, creating a striking contrast.  Complementing it is a gold inlaid circle on the floor.  
Lita Albuquerque paints Memory/Echo/Passage's golden flask
Lita Albuquerque paints Memory/Echo/Passage’s golden flask
Outside view of Sweeney Hall's Memory/Echo/Passage.
Outside view of Sweeney Hall’s Memory/Echo/Passage.
Sweeney Hall’s west entrance prior to Memory/Echo/Passage and additional remodeling.

The Memory/Echo/Passage Experience

Memory/Echo/Passage forces the viewer to interact in two ways. First, the viewer must experience time passing by walking through the hallway (thus turning the viewer into a fourth element of the installation). Second, they must experience the mural through their memory. The viewer is forced to become a part of the installation by acknowledging his/her memory and by remembering the past, even if it was only a few seconds ago.

Memory/Echo/Passage is a phenomenological mural. A phenomenon is a mental construction likened to but separate from a physical object or event. It is an immediate object of awareness in experience. This installation only becomes real through the viewer’s conscious.

University Museums materials note the flask symbolizes, or contains, all of the chemical information obtained throughout time. At the same time, the circle represents the chemical ring of elements and the endless cycle of stringing them together. The “pot of gold” on the floor symbolizes alchemy, the form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is the idea of transforming common substances into substances of great value.

In the end, the public art came to represent chemical engineering at Iowa State as the flask and circle became graphic “brand” images used in various ways by the department.

This article contains content from The First 100 Years of Chemical Engineering at Iowa State University.