Science Meets Art: A Colorful Affair, an Interview with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

A body and environmental detector that translates heat into an explosion of colors, giant stick-figure puppets, a river of fluid letters, voices recorded and translated into beautiful color shades, monumental chandeliers imitating the sun’s temperature, a bridge connected by lights and thousands of heartbeats forming valleys upside-down dazzling in the dark: his immerse installations are pure science fiction.

A strong sense of literacy in his use of LED lights, robotics, computerized surveillance and telematic networks translated into a restrained use of color, leaves no doubt for the viewer: Rafael, Lozano-Hemmer is by no means a techno optimistic. Known for avoiding excesses such as “architeinment”, that tend to jeopardize cities’ individual character through homogenizing forces, truth is, this artist longs for two sorts of color-light effects: the one which places the spectator somewhere between cathartic playfulness and awareness, and that produced violently either by men or by nature. Meet Mexican-Canadian scientist and artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at the crossroads between architecture and artistic expression, in a rendezvous that will summon you to witness the explosive affair between art and science, an encounter in which, the presence of technology will indeed, be inevitable.

Shownotes:

Website Rafael Lozano-Hemmer:
lozano-hemmer.com

Border Tuner
bordertuner.net

A crack in the hourglass. A memorial for the victims of COVID-19
memorialcovid-lozano-hemmer.web.app/?lang=en

Crystal Bridges – Museum of American Art
crystalbridges.org/calendar/listening-forest-r…

Images of some pieces:
lozano-hemmer.com/showimageemb.php?proj=border… (lozano-hemmer.com/showimage_emb.php?proj=borde…)

lozano-hemmer.com/showimageemb.php?proj=cloudd… (lozano-hemmer.com/showimage_emb.php?proj=cloud…)

lozano-hemmer.com/showimageemb.php?proj=pulset… (lozano-hemmer.com/showimage_emb.php?proj=pulse…)

lozano-hemmer.com/showimageemb.php?proj=bodymo… (lozano-hemmer.com/showimage_emb.php?proj=body_…)

Atmospheric Memory exhibition in Sydney
powerhouse.com.au/program/atmospheric-memory

amp.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/new-show…

amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/aug/12/r…