Glenn Weiss - Art and the Supercrowded Space of Times Square
- Title: Glenn Weiss - Art and the Supercrowded Space of Times Square
- Author: Glenn Weiss
- Date: 28.05
- Tags: design, lecture, urbanism, visual arts
Public art projects and interventions of performance, sculpture and video produced since 2008 in the context of Times Square history and commercial development.
The history of Times Square parallels the transformations of the 20th century city and is sometimes called the barometer of urban America. From the first commercial invention - Times Square was named after The New York Times in 1904 - many details are generally unknown. The lecture is grounded in the history of American advertising, entertainment, news media, morality, real estate development and social diversity.
As Times Square changed after 1960, artists were attracted to Times Square beyond the populist “Broadway” movies and newspaper images. Artists, writers and directors such as Kubrick, Scorsese, Kerouac, Arbus, Rosenquist, Warhol, Christo, Yoko Ono, and Neuhaus were inspired by its rough and lonely qualities. Later during the 80s and 90s as real estate developers and billboard companies sought to turn Times Square around, NGOs such as the Public Art Fund and Creative Time invigorated the space with jumbotron videos, installations in empty storefronts and unlicense performances. Holzer, Haring, Sharf, and Diller/Scofidio are a few of the young artists soon to be international stars.
Under the leadership of an association of business owners called the Times Square Alliance, Times Square started a dramatic transformation after 2000. Ground level youth retail and MTV programing were followed by the public construction of the glowing red staircase in 2008, the closing of Broadway to traffic in 2009 and new gigantic LED screens. To further enhance the reputation of Times Square, the Alliance hired Glenn Weiss to intiate the first public art progam with dance, murals sculpture, music, architecture, participatory, videos and digital works in the new pedestrian spaces under the giant LED screens.
The highly, visual lecture documents the first four years of the temporary interventions or performances produced by the Times Square Alliance. Through 25 public arts projects, Weiss explains the methods of success for artists working in a public space that is supercrowded with pedestrians and moving electronic images. He explores the joy and frustration of engaging commercial advertizing, entertainment, media and tourism in the heart of New York City. At the end, he presents the future reconstruction of Times Square to be completed in 2013.
28.05.2012. 19.00 - 22.00
Biography
Glenn Weiss produces public art installations and events for cities, civic spaces and neighborhoods. Between 2008-2011, he founded the Times Square public art program and presented 250 artists in 33 events to 350,000 daily pedestrians. Weiss directed 911 Media Art Center in Seattle and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York and served as curator for architecture at PS1. He managed public art agencies Seattle and Florida and wrote the public art plan for Miami Beach. Weiss holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.