Pulse Park – an interactive light installation by Canadian-Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – transforms Westpark at Bochum, Germany, into a sea of lights, brought to life by the heartbeats of passers-by. A computer-operated sensor measures the activity of each visitor’s heart and translates the data into sound and light pulses.
The Westpark project is Lozano-Hemmer’s largest so far, bigger than his best known installation at Madison Square Park in New York. The German site uses 250 theatre spotlights.
Below: The pulse of a visitor to the New York installation is translated into lighting.
Those in Toronto may remember Pulse Front, a matrix of light over Harbourfront, made with lightbeams from 20 powerful robotic searchlights, controlled by sensors that measured the heart rate of passers-by.
Lozano-Hemmer, based in Montreal, was born in Mexico and moved to Canada in his teens. He has an international reputation as a pioneer in the use of advanced technologies to create artworks that are continuously formed and re-formed based on data from audiences.
More about Ruhr Triennal, Jahrhunderthalle Park, Bochum, Germany, 2012, here.
More photos of the Bochum installation, here.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s biography, here.
His website, here.
Categories: Installation
Canadian Art Junkie 
nice installation i wanted to go there but didn’t make it. thanks for the good article and the photos.
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You’re welcome. I also would have loved to see this.
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I love this!
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Wouldn’t it be interesting to grasp those handles, once?
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It’s like Modern Art redefined. It’s a new sense, in a new way, creating image.
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Well put. Yes, a light image.
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Fantastic! Another beautiful moment.
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Very glad you enjoyed it.
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Ahhh… so beautiful…
I wanna be in one of those parks with my special someone, and when the light dances I’ll say, “Honey, see how my heart dances for you?” 😀
(I’m such a hopeless romantic ha ha ha)
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What a fabulous idea! Nothing wrong with romance.
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Love the co-creative, open-ended dimensions of his art!
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Great word, co-creative. He’s got an immense body of work, internationally.
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