Scattered Light: Welcomed Warmth in the Winter Months

Scattered Light: Welcomed Warmth in the Winter Months

One quivering cold night, Madison Square Park was empty, save for the hardy fans of the Shake Shack waiting for their burgers. The Empire State Building was decked out in blue and white, and a new art installation was standing unobtrusively in the park, waiting for viewers to share in its light.

In the middle of the park stands a large-scale version of curtain Christmas lights: hundreds of twinkling yellow-gold bulbs suspended seemingly unsupported in the air, swaying with the brisk wind. That beauty in itself is a welcome delight in the night, but even more magical were the pedestrian scenes that dance across its front of human silhouettes walking past, arrayed in bright gold light. Sometimes it’s the shadow of one man with a briefcase, or a father with his child on his shoulders; sometimes it’s a deluge of tourists with their heads tilted up. It was a marvel of a lighted display, equal parts technological wonder and simple brilliance.

This delightful piece called Scattered Light, also the name of the entire installation, is one of three light-image productions within Madison Square Park as part of its Mad. Sq. Art program. Artist Jim Campbell, in his career-long quest to merge technology and art into one, created three site-specific pieces all incorporating low-resolution LED light displays. Each work tells its own story; the dreamlike haziness of Broken Window has the look of a frosty window looking out into a busy intersection while the individual cubes of light “fallen” from the window hold pieces of the scene separate from the whole, and the minimal urban inspiration of Voices in the Subway Station gives the viewer a lighted glimpse into the subway as a train “passes by” and passengers “talk” while waiting for the next train.

The pièce de résistance of the installation is Scattered Light, the 60-foot-tall masterpiece of 1,600 light bulbs refitted with LEDs to look like an explosion of pixels suspended in Oval Lawn, programmed to feature edgeless suggestions of passersby, footage taken from Grand Central station. The beauty of the work is most appreciated at the moment of discovery by the observer, when he/she is standing at just the right distance away and at just the right angle to recognize the blinking lights as moving images. This moment of realization leads to an urge to stay and watch, despite the biting cold, to appreciate the ironic simplicity of the images amidst the technological feat.

Don’t ask me about the science and engineering that went into this. For me, Scattered Light was enough beauty to captivate me one late November night, enough remembrance of a summer passed, when days were longer and more awash with gold. Experience for yourself this lovely exhibit, and find a little warmth inside regardless of the weather.

Scattered Light is on display until February 28, 2011.

Scattered Light, one of three light installations at Madison Square Park.