MASTER
 
 

Open Air by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Free Event!

By FringeArts (other events)

25 Dates Through Oct 14, 2012
 
ABOUT ABOUT

Commissioned by the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount 
Park Art Association)

Opening Celebration on the Parkway with the artist presentation, live countdown and ceremonial lighting. (Rain date September 21.) All are welcome.

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“It is a piece about making the air an open platform for participation, like a free, open space for expression using electronic technologies and powerful lights that take over the sky over Philly, a city with a tradition of free speech.” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, creator of Open Air

“Lozano-Hemmer’s work shows the great range of human emotion on display.“ The Times Of London

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Imagine walking along on a balmy evening in late September, and you’re looking up the Ben Franklin Parkway. You speak into your phone and twenty-four robotic searchlights—placed along a half-mile stretch of the Parkway—move to the sound of your voice, interpreting your inflections into motion and transforming the city’s skyline. You stop speaking (or singing or humming or rapping) and the lights continue to move, controlled now by other speakers collaborating with you from up and down the Parkway.

Famous for creating interactive installations on intimate and city-wide scales, artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer underlines the connective, poetic uses of technologies originally developed for largely military and surveillance purposes. In the sky over the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he enabled thousands of individuals to pre-design 200,000 watts worth of lights for twenty seconds at a time. In Open Air he brings his distinctly personal aesthetic to Philly and empowers you to animate your skyline. Using the custom-made mobile app “Philly Open Air” your voice brings these enormous three-dimensional formations to life.

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s installations sense, record, interpret, and respond to their audiences, and represent the cutting edge in interactive art. He has been featured in museums in four dozen countries and his credits include projects designed for such large-scale events as the 2004 Expansion of the European Union in Dublin, the 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

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Eakins Oval Information Center: 24th Street and the Ben Franklin Parkway, across from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Smartphones will be available for loan.

Sister Cities Park Information Center: 18th Street and Logan Square.

Both locations will broadcast the voices of participants, and have seating areas for watching the show. Information center hours: 7:30pm–11pm.

Recommended for all ages.

A schedule of programs and nightly events for Open Air is at associationforpublicart.org/open-air.

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Partners and Supporters of Open Air include: the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe; DesignPhiladelphia in partnership with the University of the Arts; the City of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy; Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC); Center City District; Parkway Council Foundation; Canadian and Mexican Consulates; Park Towne Place Apartments, an Aimco Community; Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum; WHYY FM Radio; and Tierney among others.

Restrictions

Open Air is outside. Rain or shine. Wheelchair accessible.

Mailing Address

140 N. Columbus Blvd. (at Race St.) Philadelphia, PA 19106