Based out of Seattle, Paul Marioni and Ann Troutner have collaborated in numerous public art commissions in glass, a medium that they view as both elegant and timeless. The artists have worked together over the years to develop techniques allowing them to better integrate their glass-based work and the surrounding architecture. The results are highly functional and low maintenance glass structures that capture and manipulate light, as well as elicit responses from users of the architectural spaces for which they were intended. In Consilience, Marioni and Troutner were interested in personalizing the surrounding architecture. Taking cues from the meaning of the word “consilience,” or “a unity of knowledge or tying together science and humanities,” the work hinges on viewer interaction. It is meant to be appreciated through movement between the different vantage points. The strands of DNA code found throughout the piece represent the deepest look at the structure of life. The intertwining binary numbers to the left, behind the DNA strands, is “information” and represents the largest library ever assembled. At the center, the Pi symbol invokes how mathematics are a foundation of life. The ladder, on the far left, enables a continuous climb through life and the search of knowledge. The yellow aura surrounding the ladder represents the future. Moreover, the large-scale format reminds the viewer of the small part we play and how the human race is a relatively recent development in the universe.