Engaging Communities Through New Media Art

Raphael Lozano-Hemmer is a new media artist that combines technology and community to create engaging interactive art installations. Raphael’s art inspires communities to see their physical environment differently. Like most new media initiatives, two-way participation is encouraged to enhance the experience.

See below for a description of one of Raphael’s installations:

Vectorial Elevation - is an interactive art project originally designed to celebrate the arrival of the year 2000 in Mexico City’s Zocalo Square. The website www.alzado.net enabled any Internet user to design light sculptures over the city’s historic centre, with eighteen searchlights positioned around the square. These searchlights, whose powerful beams could be seen within a 15 kilometers radius, were controlled by an online 3D simulation program and visualised by digital cameras. A personalised webpage was produced for every participant with images of their design and information such as their name, dedication, place of access and comments. These web pages were completely uncensored, allowing participants to leave a wide variety of messages, including love poems, football scores, Zapatistaslogans and twenty-seven marriage proposals. In Mexico, the project attracted 800,000 participants from 89 countries over the course of its two-week duration.

This excerpt was taken from Raphael’s website www.lozano-hemmer.com. You can also visit his site to learn about his more recent art installations.

Being in the Technology Industry, it is always inspiring to learn of ways that technology is being introduced to new audiences. Raphael’s art combines the online community and the physical community, which enriches the experience and breathes life into a technology driven art form. I would encourage us to promote and support projects that focus on unique uses of new media as it helps to build awareness on a global scale.