“iheart times square” was a recent public arts proposal for installation in Times Square, as part of the Renewable Times Square project.  Architect Ceren Bingol assisted the creation of the proposal.  The following is an abstract of the project:

The words of “iheart times square” explore mutable texts as interactive poetry. An original poem is written; its words are split apart and painted on the ground as large-scale standalone objects. The location of the words invite the visitors to either find the intended flow of the poem or discover meaning based on the random flow of their travel.

Like love, iheart knows no boundaries. Text is picture, picture is text; the path is the destination. The words and symbols of “iheart times square” shift in scale from the local to the universal, i.e. the words “cross roads” symbolize both the physical nature of the street grid as well as the melting pot of diverse visitors at Times Square. The symbols also vary in scale to address multiple pedestrian flows and heights by which viewers may view the Broadway plazas.

The poem I wrote to be painted:

iheart
standing here
at the crossroads of the world
a square of electric aspiration
where the world is a screen
an extended american dream
spectacular commerce of a people
in a new agora
holding the beacon of hope
a torch of imprisoned light
yearning to be free
in a land where
love is the common currency
out of many
we are one
[sic]

These small thumbnails below are clickable, showing the rest of the visual proposal:

The winning proposal is an infographic, a safe bet in public art these days.  Proposed by Molly Dilworth, the project will show infrared satellite data of Manhattan in shades of blue.  Where huge abstract sculptures dot the modernist public art landscape, today we see many projects featuring visually appealing interpretations of contemporary datasets.  The outlined twist is that it’s supposed to look like a river in Times Square and keep it cool.

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To view the overall iheart project, click here.

To view Ceren Bingol’s works and blog, click here.