[Laser] BBC World Service - In the Studio Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Border Tuner

bernieS bernies at panix.com
Wed Nov 20 19:25:08 EST 2019


Here's an interesting radio documentary and 
website about a political art project that 
establishes an international Mexico<>U.S. voice 
communications network using modulated visible light.

-bernieS


https://www.utep.edu/rubin/program-outreach/border-turner.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csz1zg

BBC World Service - In the Studio

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Border Tuner

Released On: 19 Nov 2019

Imagine huge searchlights which can be seen over a ten mile, 15 kilometer
radius talking to one another across two countries. This is exactly what
electronic media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is creating this November
between Ciudad Juárez in Mexico and El Paso in Texas.

Called Border Tuner, the project will see enormous bridges of light
connecting the US-Mexico border for the first time.

When lights from the stations (three on each side) are directed at each
other and they manage to make a connection, a massive bridge of light is
formed. This activates microphones and speakers allowing participants to
communicate with one another across the border. The “light bridge”
flickers like morse code as the participants listen and speak to one
another. If they don’t like what they are hearing they can retune to a
different light beam.

This is not the first time Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has used search lights in
his art but he’s never done anything on this scale or with this complexity
before. Born in Mexico City in 1967, he first produced a remote-controlled
searchlight project in 1999 for the Zócalo Square in Mexico City. Since
then he has created installations in dozens of cities around the world
where the public controls the searchlights using the internet, mobile
phones, megaphones or heart rate sensors.


Presented by Monica Ortiz Uribe
Produced by Emma Betteridge for the BBC World Service



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