“Window to the Heart”, Fresnel len, in Times Square
17/02/2018.
Times Square [NYC] USA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Every year, public art program Times Square Arts invites love-themed proposals from architecture and design firms for exhibition throughout February. This year the Design Trust for Public Space and Times Square Arts have selected again the winners of the 2018 Times Square Valentine Heart Design competition, an annual event that brings a love-themed sculpture to the crossroads of the World.
ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho, Window to the Heart in Times Square. Photo courtesy of Ian Douglas for Times Square Arts.
The team tested countless tile designs for the large-scale Fresnel lens, 3D printing prototypes that would eventually evolve into the final tiles.
The 3-D printed optical tiles create the Fresnel lens. Photo: Courtesy of Formlabs
Formlabs was able to print several tiles simultaneously while Aranda\Lasch tested concepts, and within days both teams could see the effects of large aggregations of tiles on the installation.
Courtesy of ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho.
Marcelo Coelho and Ben Aranda working on Window to the Heart. Photo courtesy of ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho.
ArandaLasch + Marcelo Coelho’s Window to the Heart in Times Square. Photo courtesy of Ian Douglas for Times Square Arts.
Fotografía por Ian Douglas. Cortesía de Times Square Arts
This year’s winning installation, Window to the Heart, was created by two collaborators, the design studio Aranda\Lasch and Brazilian artist Marcelo Coelho, curated by the Design Trust for Public Space. The project team collaborated with 3D-printing manufacturer Formlabs, held up by a structure engineered by Laufs Engineering Design, to design a 12-foot-wide 3D-printed Fresnel lens to collect and morph Times Square’s lights through a central, heart-shaped aperture.
This marks the 10th anniversary of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, an annual event where Times Square Arts invites architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a public art installation celebrating Love in Times Square in February.
This marks the 10th anniversary of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, an annual event where Times Square Arts invites architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a public art installation celebrating Love in Times Square in February.
Ben Aranda.- We live in a culture experienced through screens and cameras. Times Square is a temple to this media culture. But in this culture only the image is celebrated. In Times Square, only the screens are big. The unspoken hero in this media culture is the lens–behind every image is a lens that captured it.
Window to the Heart will remain on view through the month of February at Father Duffy Square between 46th and 47th Streets, New York, NY 10036.
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