The 2015 MIDNIGHT MOMENT season – which brought us into the
4th year of the Midnight Moment program – explored how contemporary
viewers’ daily sophistication with screens looks when “super-sized.” From the
historic "Screen Tests 1964-66" of Andy
Warhol to the playful animated television viewers of OSGEMEOS’s "Parallel Connection," the stars of the
films stared right at the audience, creating a different type of self-awareness
than snapping a photo of oneself. Other visual artists used camera movement with
a myriad of techniques that referenced different decades or centuries to
challenge our sense of time and place. Marco Brambilla’s "Apollo XVIII" placed us at the fictional launch of a lunar voyage,
collaging historic NASA footage with CGI. Richard Garet’s "Perceptual: Sonic Landscape / Midnight Blink" generated an abstract,
pulsating color-field transposed from local sounds. And Shahzia Sikander’s "Gopi-Cotagion" fluttered a bird-like
migration, transformed from an overlooked shape in illustration, across the
plazas.
A Pause in the City That Never Sleeps (2015-01-01/2015-01-31) by Sebastian ErrazurizTimes Square Arts
Much Better Than This (2015-02-01/2015-02-28) by Rafaël RozendaalTimes Square Arts
Apollo XVIII (2015-03-01/2015-03-31) by Marco BrambillaTimes Square Arts
In March, Brambilla used historic footage from NASA, animation and CGI to create a fictional launch of Apollo XVIII where the final scene featured a rocket blasting up the side of a Times Square building.
City Thermogram (2015-04-01/2015-04-30) by Peggy AhweshTimes Square Arts
Screen Tests 1964-66 (2015-05-01/2015-05-31) by Andy WarholTimes Square Arts
The Andy Warhol Museum curated a special collection of “Screen Tests” in May, showcasing the diversity of creative interpretation that can come from a simple direction to look at at the camera.
Perceptual: Sonic Landscape / Midnight Blink (2015-06-01/2015-06-30) by Richard GaretTimes Square Arts
June’s Midnight was the first created from being in residence in Times Square. Richard Garet collected sounds that were transposed into pulsating color fields, allowing us to ‘hear’ through visual sensation.
Copenhagen Cycles Journey (2015-07-01/2015-07-31) by Eric DyerTimes Square Arts
Parallel Connection (2015-08-01/2015-08-31) by OSGEMEOSTimes Square Arts
Popular twin brother team OSGEMEOS, known for their static mural-scaled paintings, created an animation that turned the viewing back on the viewer.
The Conductor (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi) (2015-09-01/2015-09-30) by Rashaad NewsomeTimes Square Arts
In collaboration with his video work, Rashaad Newsome curated two pop-up concerts for hip-hop artists who contributed to the making of the video and represent the future of the genre.
Gopi-Contagion (2015-10-01/2015-10-31) by Shahzia SikanderTimes Square Arts
Shahzia Sikander’s animation, created from hundreds of digitized gouache drawings, was filmed to create movements that seduce the viewer into taking a journey through blue skies, swarming birds and watercolor afterlives.
Servitudes (2015-11-01/2015-11-30) by Jesper JustTimes Square Arts
The Odyssey (2015-12-01/2015-12-30) by Antony NagelmannTimes Square Arts
Midnight Moment is the largest coordinated effort in history by the sign operators in Times Square to display synchronized, cutting-edge creative content on electronic billboards and newspaper kiosks throughout Times Square every night. The program premiered in May 2012 and is organized and supported by the Times Square Advertising Coalition in partnership with Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, with additional partners of participating sign holders and artists.
Times Square Arts is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
