What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1477312
AUGUST 28-SEPTEMBER 3, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 9 meant installing that many pieces of rebar in the forest floor, an arduous process that Benedetti says can't be rushed. It also means scaling back on the brightness of many of the lighting components, since Lozano-Hemmer's works won't be competing with so much other light pollution. "In the city, the intensity has to be so bright," Benedetti says. "Out in the forest (if it's still that bright, it's) like it's screaming at you, so it has to be pulled back." Before arriving in Northwest Arkansas, Lozano-Hemmer's team consulted with ornithologists at the Audubon Society for the safest way to display one of his lighting works in particular — which resembles two large spotlights aimed into the air — while having the smallest impact on wildlife as possible. Birds are often flying their migratory paths at night, for example, and the artist wanted to make sure his work wouldn't affect those patterns. If it sounds like the total effect of Lozano-Hemmer's works is to make visitors think twice about how their actions and movements affect the planet, that is in fact intentional. His daughter is what he calls an outspoken environmentalist, and Benedetti says that has seeped into Lozano-Hemmer's work as a way to do right by his kids and thoughtfully display art in a way that's safe for all forms of life in the area. After having experienced Lozano-Hemmer's "pulse room," a series of 100 lightbulbs operating with the help of heart rate sensors, Benedetti expects that the pulse forest will be the crowd favorite. "You wrap your hands around these two metal monitors and (it lights) one light bulb right in front of you," he says. "Eventually you have a room of 100 heart beats pulsing in beautiful syncopation. Even with 100, it was just stunning." A custom soundtrack by the artist Scanner was created for the "Listening Forest," which brings those sound elements into play at exactly the right time and affects how you wind up listening to heartbeats in the forest. Benedetti has asked Lozano- Hemmer whether they can say too much, give too much away about his work, but he's not concerned. "You just have to be there, standing in this space, actually engaging with it," Benedetti says. Visitors can add their heartbeat to an array of 3,000 lightbulbs, each glimmering to the pulse of a different participant from the past in Pulse Forest. (Courtesy Image/Antimodular Studio) The Arkansas Text Stream project is one of the eight works within the "Listening Forest." Projectors allow letters to appear on the pavement down the forest trail and make it appear as if the letters are flowing downstream. When the letters get to a person who is walking along the trail, some stop to form a phrase for the person to read. The phrases were community sourced through the Pryor Center, Ozark Highlands Radio, a local poet and other community contributors, says outdoor interpretation specialist Samantha Best. (Courtesy Image/Antimodular Studio) Microphones will pick up sounds from visitors on a bridge and translate them into an array of light in the ravine below in "Summon." (Courtesy Image/Antimodular Studio)