Europe to light up Dublin Sky (Thursday 15 April 2004)

compiled by Susan Garcia

The largest installation of interactive art in the world is taking place in a week's time in Dublin to celebrate Ireland's 'Day of Welcomes'. Vectorial elevation, created by the Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, is one of the many events happening countrywide to mark the historic accesion of ten new Member States to the European Union.

The Dublin project takes place on O'Connell Street where 22 robotic searchlights will be placed. These lights will project into the sky and will be controlled by anyone who, as of April 22, 2004, logs onto the website www.dublinelevation.net. Via this website people will be able to design their own enormous light sculptures in the sky of Dublin. The website will have a 3D virtual model of the city where participants can make a light design using the 22 robotic searchlights. As submissions arrive from the internet, every fifteen seconds a new pattern will be displayed in the sky. With 154,000 watts of power, the beams of light will be visible from a distance of 15 kilometres. Participants' names and dedications will be shown on a large screen in the street and on personal web pages that will be made automatically for each design. The website will also present a live broadcast from four video cameras placed around the city centre so that remote viewers can see the current state of the installation.

The artist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, is assisted by a dozen programmers, designers and technicians from five countries. His main interest is in electronic art and he is recognised for large-scale interactive installations in public spaces, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. Lozano-Hemmer's speciality, which he calls 'relational architecture', aims to transform urban spaces with interactive technologies that allow the public to form an integral part of the artwork. The project intends to fold the virtual space of the internet with the real space of the city to create what he calls an "anti-monument": "if people don't participate and add their own input the project does not exist."

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: image from Vectorial elevation at Zócalo, Mexico City, 1999 / 2000; image held here

Vectorial elevation was presented for the first time in the ZÖcalo Square in Mexico City, for the Millennium celebrations. More than 800,000 people from 89 countries visited the website (69% from Mexico), and millions saw the designs in the city.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: image from Vectorial elevation at Vitoria-Gasteiz,Basque Country, 2002; image held here

In spring of 2002, the project was installed in the Basque capital city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, to coincide with the opening of the Basque Museum of Contemporary Art, Artium. For that edition, over 300,000 people from 65 countries (47% from Spain) visited the site.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: image from Vectorial elevation at Lyon, 2003; image held here

In the fall of 2003, the piece transformed the Place Bellecour in Lyon, for the UN's World Summit of Cities. In seven nights the project was visited by over 600,000 people (81% from France) with over 6.5 million web pages served.

For Dublin it is expected that the website will reach over one million visitors. Vectorial elevation received the Golden Nica award in 2001, the oldest and most prestigious electronic-art award in the world, given by the Ars Electronica festival and ORF TV in Austria. The project also received an SFMOMA Webby distinction in San Francisco, an Excellence Prize at the CG Arts Festival in Tokyo and a Trophée des Lumières in Lyon. The piece will be in operation every night from April 22 to May 3, 2004 from dusk to dawn. This piece is funded by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism for Ireland 2004 Presidency of the European Union.

(More information here.)

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