Outside the San Jose Repertory Theatre is the Oionos sculpture by Douglas Hollis and I must have passed it a hundred times.  It was only today that I realized that the writing on it is not designed to be read by humans; at least, not humans on the ground.

The writing can only be read aright from above, so it must have been designed to inspire the gods, or aliens, or people in planes passing overhead.

It says “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” This line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest is often misquoted as “We are such stuff as dreams are made of,” which doesn’t mean the same thing at all. So, I’m glad that Douglas Hollis is correctly quoting Shakespeare to the gods, aliens, and/or planes.

Interestingly, Alexander Graham Bell named one of his kites Oionos. It means “bird of omen.”