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The ambitious video-art sync project “Times Square Moment: A Digital Gallery” will kick off tonight at the crossroads of the world, as sign owners coordinate to simultaneously display video portraits over digital displays encompassing tens of thousands of combined square feet.
Put together by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and Times Square Alliance, the project will feature a different display each month. For the month of May the signs will spotlight the international touring exhibition Robert Wilson Video Portraits, which the artist compiled from footage of various actors, artists, athletes and animals, with limited movement and sound accompaniment.
At 11:57 p.m. tonight and every night for the rest of the month, participating signs will run the display for three minutes. A preview last month displayed an edited version of the film Big Bang 01 by London based artist Ori Gersht.
“The scale is well beyond what I have reached with this work,” said video portrait artist Wilson. “The video portraits will act as a window from Times Square into the personal, poetic statements of the different personalities represented.
“New York City has been home for most of my adult life, although for the past 40 years my work has been seen mostly outside of the U.S. It is great to have this work shown at home,” he added.
The project will make history with the largest square footage donation of electronic signage ever achieved… and incorporating some of the most valuable advertising spaces in the world. Campaigns on the Nasdaq and Thomson Reuters signs, for example, can run into seven figures.
“This program is a reminder of the uniqueness of Times Square signage as well as our commitment to constantly reinventing the Times Square experience so it is distinctive and memorable,” said Alan High, Chairman of TSAC and President & General Manager of the Clear Channel’s Spectacolor and Malls divisions.
Digital screens expected to participate this month are ABC Super Sign, American Eagle, Bank of America, Disney Store LED Screen, Doubletree Sign, JVC Screen, MTV Video Screen, NASDAQ, NASDAQ Marquee, Spectacolor HD129 Times Square Visitor Center Marque, Spectacolor HD 128, Spectacolor HD 127 CNN Screen, Times Square Visitor Center lobby screens, Viacom Building Northeast and Southeast (SL Green Realty and Orange Barrel Media) and Thomson Reuters.
More information about the program can be found here.
